Chapter 448 – Fairies Turn

"Eterna, again?" I groan. "Is something going on with your pregnancy?" If only she were awake to answer me. "At least you're warm."

"She does heat the bed well," Mommy says. "Fairies today?"

"Kou?" I say. Of course, the answer is yes. That was what I promised. But hopefully, asking her a question will get her to stop laughing at me. My wives really do have a strange way of cuddling.

"Yes, My Queen," Kou says. "Best do the replacement or wake up Lady Eterna."

"I'll switch out with you," Mommy says. "It was funny when she finally woke up. She was really surprised it was me instead of you, but I got a little closer to her. We need the others to get up first."

Sedriresa is already working on getting Elora out of the bed. Some of the maids of the house had been 'blessed' by Lactation, apparently, and were now happy to act as wetnurses for the hungry Goddess, giving Shimmer, Sedriresa, and Elora a bit of a break.

"I should've brought your kids along," I say.

"No," Mommy says. "They're old enough to handle me being gone for a bit. I won't be traveling for a while after we get back, but I need to support you on these last two trips."

"Shimmer's is..."

"Dear, don't worry. They're with their loving father right now. I had so much time alone with them, so you can have a bit of alone time with them for now. Our babies know I'm coming back and know they're with a parent who loves them deeply. I'm sure they can feel that. The first kid is always a bit harder to give up. They're being completely normal Mothers right now, just as I am. Now, let's get the clingy phoenix off you."

"Ok," I say.

From there, I go through the same routine as yesterday up until we enter the forest. Even the path through the forest is similar, just going in the opposite direction from yesterday. And Ioelena isn't planning on staying behind this time.

It's time to see how well the fairies handle my wife. I probably can't get Daisy pregnant with twins, or she's going to blame Ioelena for it somehow. They'll have to be happy with more of her harem getting pregnant than they were expecting, which is a rather stupid joke, if you could even call it one.

They have the same illusion surrounding their city, and Daisy is waiting with some of her harem on the other side of it.

"Welcome to our city, Queen Alzi and Lady Ioelena," Daisy says. "What would you like to do first?"

"You don't plan to trick me into a bath, do you?" I ask.

"No," Daisy says. "We can have a bath if you would like, but I won't trick you into it."

"We'll make it fair," I sigh. "A bath would be nice, I think."

"Then, this way," Daisy says. "It sounds like the pixies are pulling out the nice pranks for you. I don't think I've ever had the honor of being tricked into a bath before. However, it's not like you need a bath right now. It's clear your maid takes good care of you."

"She does," I say. "A bit strict, and deathly afraid I'll get her pregnant. But a hard worker."

"So Treedoc really does have triplets?" Daisy asks.

"No, twins, along with another one of her wives. I didn't tell them who."

"I knew she couldn't handle triplets," Daisy says. "But they won't know who is having the twins until they start kicking."

"Would you like twins? Or any of your harem?" I ask. Why am I being so fair to them?

"It is your choice," Daisy says. "I would like them, but I understand I've offended you already."

"Fine, then you also won't get to know who else is getting twins," I say. "Or if another woman in your harem is going to be having twins."

"We have a temple to Fertility," Daisy says.

"Do you think my Goddess will go against my wishes? She'll find it funny," I say.

"As you wish," Daisy says. "The bath will be a little tight with you two joining us, but this is the biggest we have."

The building does look a bit smaller than what the pixies had. I guess they like having the extra room to pull off pranks more easily. I have to bend over to get through the door, and inside, I can barely stand up. I guess I'll have to thank Kou for not forcing heels on me today.

It seems this is a proper bath, as we walk into a changing room, where Ioelena takes charge of stripping me. I need to get her together with Vanya and knock her up.

Ioelena quickly finishes getting us undressed, and we move into the next chamber, where another group of fairies is floating around.

"They will clean us," Daisy says, diving into the bath.

I follow her in. The water is a bit cold, but I'll live. Not everyone can enjoy scalding hot, or even stand it.

The group of extra fairies chases after me and starts cleaning me off. I close my eyes and drift off to the feeling of small hands massaging a bit of soap into my skin.

...

"Dear," Ioelena whispers. "We're all cleaned up, again."

"We were hardly dirty," I say. "But it is relaxing. Daily baths were one of the few good things at the brothel. I'm too busy to do this every day now."

"Tell Kou about it, and she'll work some time for baths into your schedule," Ioelena says. "That is part of her job."

"I do let her direct things too much," I say.

"As you said, you've been busy," Ioelena says. "Let's go get dressed. Queen Daisy went on ahead. It seems she predicted you would want a bath and put the injured nearby."

"They sure like to spy on the pixies, despite hating them so much," I sigh. They'll probably say something about keeping an eye on the crazies so they don't hurt them so much, or some other excuse. I think they like the craziness of the Pixies a bit. If they could just find a way to have some guaranteed safety so they weren't constantly worried, I think they could have one city for the two groups.

"The pixies did the same thing?" Ioelena asks.

"Yes, they put the injured above the trick bath so they wouldn't waste my mana if I moved too fast for their trick," I say.

"They are smart about their tricks," Ioelena says.

"I suppose," I say.

The injured aren't in the same building, but are just one building over. It's a bit taller, so I'm not threatening to scrape my horns against the wooden ceiling.

"You do have fewer injured than the pixies did," I say. "I guess I don't have to be mad about the breeding agreement then."

"I told you," Daisy says. "I just didn't trust the pixies not to hide women from you."

"I would know who I'm healing," I say. "But it's fine. It'll be nice not to have over a hundred to heal. It'll go a lot faster."

"Thank you for your help," Daisy says. "I'll let you be. If you need anything, just ask."

"I should be good," I say. "Maybe a light lunch in a bit. That'll make my maid happy."

"I'll have the kitchen bring something for you."

"Thank you."

It's about half the number to heal compared to the pixies. Still enough that this will take some time, especially with all the missing limbs. I'm guessing they had a lot of friendly fire from the pixies. They don't have the magical damage that the pixies had, so maybe they really do hate the pixies. But the pixies are brave for taking on so much danger for the group.

Well, time to be a healer, with my clothing staying on yet again.

...

"Lunch," Daisy says. "If you would like to pause."

"It's only..."

"Go, Queen Alzi," the next in line says. "You're pregnant. Eat. We aren't going anywhere."

"Ok," I say. "Thank you."

"You're the one healing us all. Go take your break."

People are a lot nicer to me these days. The collar really is a bitch. Or maybe it's just that being a Queen is really nice. Can I call myself an Empress? Azula is technically the Queen of Edeozia right now. I think.

Lunch is just some sandwiches, probably something easy for them to carry around when they have to make some food bigger than normal.

"Did you make the bread yesterday or today?" I ask.

"I had it made this morning," Daisy says. "We like to be prepared. Worst case, we break it up and use the crumbs for something at dinner."

"That makes more sense," I say. "You didn't have the time from when I asked for lunch to make it, so I was wondering when you did. Do the pixies do most of the fighting? The injuries seem to be mainly from traps."

"Yes, they do take on a bit more risk for the fights," Daisy says. "Otherwise, I would've at least tried to switch the order you'd visit us in. We normally finish off the enemies after they've been trapped, but we don't have the skill to find the placed traps, so accidents happen. Still, it is the biggest threat to us, so I can't really complain. They're good at trapping things."

"They train from a young age," I say.

"I know. Be careful when you play with your kids. They don't have much control over their mana when they're young."

"I saw," I say. "Kind of scary."

"That it is," Daisy says. "Our kids don't get raised that way. Though I have tried to get them to have a bit more freedom to play."

Ok, I wonder if I can get these two groups together. Clearly, they can't just be one city, but they can mix a bit more. It would be good for the pixies to learn some constraint and the fairies to have a bit of fun. Maybe I can use Ioelena to help out with that. The fairies have seemed to give Ioelena plenty of room today, but they didn't look disgusted. Of course, that could just be me not knowing what they look like when disgusted.

"Do you want to set up the room while I finish up? It should be just an hour or so," I ask. "I would like to leave tonight and get back to my kids, and I'm sure my maid would like that as well. She likes to move fast."

"I think she'll let us have one more dinner with my family," Ioelena says. "She's a reasonable woman."

"Maybe," I say. "She may just ask me what I want to do, so I guess we don't have to rush things along. I'll get back to healing the last few women."

"We can set it up and give you some time to play with the kids. It may be a good thing for them to play with you for a bit," Daisy says.

"We can try that," I say. "It would make everything even."