Chapter 371 – War Update

"Daddy!"

"I'm getting up, Mistress," I say.

"Hey, babies," Mommy says. "Let's get breakfast while Daddy gets ready. He's a bit sleepy in the morning."

"Can you fly us around, too?" Irlo asks as Mommy directs her and Leena out of the room.

"We can keep that to just your Daddy for now, little ones. I'm much weaker than him," Mommy says.

"I, I just..." I start.

"You've done that for ten years," Mai says, pulling me into a hug. "You didn't think about what they were saying. You reacted as you have for the past ten years. We'll work on it. They don't know what you did, and in the worst case, we can turn it into a joke with them. I'll slip up as well. There will be some nights when we'll have to lock the door and have a few maids standing at the end of the halls for us. We don't have to forget all the things we learned about sex at that place."

"It hurts," I say.

"Of course it does. I hate that I walk in a way that gets everyone to look at me. I hate all the things I've been conditioned to do. Slowly, we'll work to unlearn all the terrible habits. Now, let's get you ready to impress your daughters."

"Thank you."

"We both have to help each other."

...

My main body doesn't have much of a different style from normal. My current healing methods don't work with the very idea of conservative styles. My second body is getting a simple yellow dress that feels a lot better: bra, underwear, tights, and everything. The underwear is normal, just not the bra, which does make it a bit harder to feed babies. And with how many I have, I'll probably have to take the bra off at some point, but we can start testing everything now.

With nothing else to do, my main body goes off to the temple, and my second body heads outside to see what my kids need.

*** Second body ***

I haven't flown in this body before. I can't use mana, but mana isn't required for flying, though it does make it easier. However, this body isn't pregnant, so that should help as well. That part is nice, even if I'm not yet noticing any difficulty in walking around or feeling the normal aches with this pregnancy.Just keep it to a simple flight. Leena has to go home soon, and Irlo has some lessons today.

"Who's going first?" I ask my girls. I hope Elora doesn't want to fly. I don't think I'm strong enough to lift a warrior right now. She just gives Leena a soft pat and holds Irlo back.

"Leena!" Irlo says. "I've done it before."

"That's very kind of you," I say. "Well, this makes it easy to start. Ready to fly, Leena?"

"Yes," Leena says, running up to me.

"Ok, we don't have that much time today, but we'll find more time to do this again, and Irlo may be able to lift you eventually." Irlo really did get close to being a dragon. A lot more than Leena. But I'm not sure how that happened. Leena must be a year older than Irlo or something.

"I'm working hard to fly, Daddy," Irlo says.

"Good, you should work on all the skills you can learn," Mommy says. "We can work on it a bit with you as well. It takes time to get to the point where you can fly, after all. It's always a great day when we see a new girl flying in the village. We'll get you to fly, too."

I pick Leena up and take off. I'm not happy that I'm the only one holding her. I'm kind of counting on Nanoka paying attention and catching Leena if she slips from my grip. But Nakuma is still helping with the portal with Yuki. I guess I should've gotten Shimmer or Syro to come out to watch me. Maybe they're peeking in on me anyway. I'm not going far from the manor this time, just some circles around the manor with the giggling girl.

*** Tanatsu ***

It's been three decades since the last time I left my Lover's side. I don't love trusting Yuki. Sure, Nakuma is strangely dependable if she has access to Yuki or a goal to gain access to Yuki. The problem is Alzi. She wants to help, but with her past, who knows if she'll snap?

It isn't hard to see the trauma surfacing as she works on her slave. You have to have some serious desires to push past that. But she was a slave. A breeding cow. A broodmare. Is she going to force Yuki to do it correctly? Alzi has to save her mana, so Yuki will have to do it. Maybe Sarania can help too, but she likely wants to keep plenty in reserve to protect her Mistress. Yuki doesn't plan that far ahead.

I just have to trust them. That's the only way my Lover will be healed soon. A bit of well-placed trust, and I may be getting a full family started at the end of this, maybe even before Yuki gets her stupid kids.

I just need to get the right monsters for Alzi. I can't complain about Yuki failing, and then come back empty-handed myself. I'll be looking for scouts. They'll be the ones that are just smart enough to be useful for our tests, and they'll be alone or in small enough groups that I can take them out by myself. Plus, no one can say I didn't do anything for the war after this. Random scouts getting killed where there is no attack is a good thing, unless there is a group there that I end up fucking over, but that's their problem, not mine. I tried to help.

Into the blasted forest, I go.

I'm a bit away from any army, to save me from the questions and lower my chances of running into too large a group of enemies.

Nature protects the growth of her forests dearly around here, it seems. Just a few minutes into my trip, and the forests seem to wish I would go no farther. Bushes and vines grow where sunlight can't reach them. Roots shoot out of the ground to trip anyone who isn't careful. Even the quietness is unnatural. Only insects can easily navigate this terrain.

Why does the Goddess of Nature like to design so much? Isn't it easier to just let it grow? It certainly would be for me.

I'll have to hope a group stumbles my way.

*** Queen Yumanea Elagwyn ***

It fucking sucks having to deal with two queens from the higher realms. Kiyomi is still mad that she doesn't get to control Alzi and has no promise of grandchildren. And Flametalon isn't much happier. I guess Alzi didn't give her much, but at least she has a grandchild on the way. Still, they are doing their parts in the war, so I can't complain too much about them.

"Irdru," I say. "How goes the retreat?"

"Fine," my head of intelligence says. "Almost all of the towns have moved to the cities with their grains. Food production is fine. Enough to last a few months at least. The far-reaching cities are being evacuated as well. Princess Elora has offered a lot to house them in the better-protected cities. For now, our people will be fine."

"Good, good," I say. "High Priestesses, anything new from the great Goddess of War?"

"No, everything is the same today. But there is an interesting girl in the field right now. Things may change quickly today."

"For which side?" Kiyomi says. Does she know who it is?

"Both," is all the High Priestess gives. Her information is invaluable, but they prefer to give hints rather than answers. I guess the more vague she is, the better we should feel. They promised to drag out the war, not to help us end it.

"Our forces are holding strong," I say. "We are still waiting on the ritual from the Goddess of Fertility. Champion Alzi has started healing, using the Goddess of Space to bring the women to her. And your armies should have the symbol, so they can send women her way if needed. I'm working on getting her more help so the portal can stay open for longer."

"It's harder than I thought to trick the stupid dragons into burning the forest down," Flametalon says. "They may not be working together well, but they aren't yet actively hurting each other."

"Of course," Kiyomi says. "They may have gotten tricked into fighting, but they aren't about to get tricked into killing each other. Not unless my forces can give you some support. We need you, Yumena, to shrink the battlefield."

"You heard the report," I say. "We're working on it. Moving people isn't simple. The Goddess of Space is already giving us a lot with the portal for Champion Alzi. We can't ask her for too much more right now. A week, maybe two, and we should be in a position to have you help both sides of the conflict, like you wish."

"Have we gained any insight into who their Champions are?" Flametalon asks.

"No," Irdru says. "The dragons, you would have more insight into. But for Nature, we are guessing a dryad; any other Champion would have shown themselves by now. With some luck, they don't want to fight."

"Kiyomi, this is your specialty," Flametalon says.

"It is most likely an ancient dryad, for them not to be seen at all by my forces. If they join the attack, I'll have to be the one to fight them. One of my daughters will take my place leading my forces in that case.""Very well," I say. "Thank you all for your commitment and time. Good luck to you all."

The others wave me off before disappearing from our little meeting. Then the High Priestess bows herself out, and I'm left alone. Irdru has too much work to stay back. Only pregnant me has nothing to do. Besides paperwork. "You're getting ready to come out, right?" I ask the silly child. I have to do some fighting, or else I think the other Queens are going to find a way to take Alzi from my Queendom.

Paperwork, it is.

*** Alzi, main body ***

I dared to poke at the gate today. Just a tad, to see if I could get under it without destroying it. It didn't work. I'm thinking I'll have to drop them down into the Kitsune. It's a lot of cutting, and I'll need to cut to her current gates as well. I'll have to practice with my shadow tomorrow so I can get used to cutting a woman. Hopefully, Tanatsu has some beasts for me to work on soon.

Maybe in a month, I'll have that girl pregnant and walking around.

She asked me to get her pregnant, even if she doesn't need it. She's kind of cute, and I'm sure she'll need that spark to get going anyway, so it isn't much of an issue to say yes. They'll have to stick around until the kid grows up for the payment, though. Tanatsu won't like that, but she'll live.

The next problem is that Aurora now has time to teach reading again, and with Irlo in her own lessons, I don't have much of an excuse to get out of mine. I have to set an example and all of that. At least my second body can hold my kids while I'm dealing with letters. Maybe Writing will give birth to Reading, and I can skip all of this.

Not that any of the Goddesses have made any sense so far. I have no luck, and I only create things instead of destroying them. And Fertility doesn't do contracts. So we'll see. Maybe if the Goddess has a strong connection to something, they'll have some sway over the kid.