Chapter 482 – A Bold Request

"Fucking hell, is this the real reason why you brought me here?" Victoria says. "To tease my ass with a comfortable bed and then force me to meet a damn Queen. You know it's fucking mean to deceive your wives."

"I didn't know about the bed," I say. "It was hard for me to get out of it this morning, too."

Eterna has apparently been weaving a bunch of comfort runes into the bed over the years. The fabric can't handle too much mana, but the sheer volume of cloth that has the runes etched into it makes up for the limited mana that each strand can hold.

The rest of her cave is kind of boring. Yzzorres may have gotten her obsession with sleeping from the fact that it is all they can do most of the time. Even as the strongest being, she's probably still scared of dying if she leaves too often. Even with three of the phoenixes, they're afraid to go out as well. Their true forms are more comfortable, but it's harder to do things in them with their size and lack of fingers. Eterna had to etch the runes with mana, but I guess I do a similar thing with wood.

Should I meet the Goddess of Woodworking? I'm guessing she's Fertility's daughter if she snuck me a gift of woodworking. Apparently, it took Eterna a decade to be able to start etching the runes, but I figured out my woodworking in a week.

"You weren't in the fucking bed long enough to know how difficult it fucking is to leave it," Victoria groans. "I thought my damn body had melted into fucking fabric this morning."

"You were fucking Shimmer?" I ask. "She had the baby with her, and you didn't invite me to join you? What a wife."

"You fucking know that word was fucking color," Victoria says. "If I were fucking someone, it would be you. Fuck one of the stupid Princesses while you're right fucking there? I'm not fucking stupid. I only fucked Yuki to fucking trick her. I don't need to do any damn tricking now."

"Trick her?" I ask.

"She never fucking told you about that?" Victoria asks. "Damn coward. She thought she was in fucking control when we started fucking working together. I had to fix that fucking thought, and I needed to fucking make sure the slippery bitch didn't worm her way out of our deal. I fucked her and made it so the bitch had to marry the same fucking Princess as me. Otherwise, I could see that bitch trying to run off with you and leaving my ass behind. She fucking had to marry one of Yumanea's damn children with me. The fucker definitely had some stupid fucking plan for how to grab you the second your ass made it back to the capital. And she probably would've forgotten about your damn collar and killed you when she brought you to her fucking realm."

"That does sound about right," I say.

"Am I not going to have a leash?" Shimmer asks.

"Not in front of our child," I say. "In private, you'll be getting the full setup. We'll have to give our kid over to your sisters, or Kou?"

"I'll take her, My Empress," Kou says. "I don't trust them to handle her correctly. They don't have a good track record with you. Are there any requests you wish to make of the Queen? We can work on the wording right now, before we head down the mountain. I know about the main request you have, and I'm sure you can word it if you still wish to do it. But is there anything else?"

"No," I say. "Coming in with Eterna should be more than enough to get Shimmer on the throne eventually, and there's the fact that I'll be fucking the Queen on the throne. She won't have much of a choice after that display."

"Ahem, sorry, but I seem to have terrible timing," Ryze says, walking into the room in her humanoid form. "The Queen told me you were going to visit her, so I thought of going with you. But with the activity you'll be doing, I don't know if I'm welcome."

"Eterna has already asked about sisters," I say. "You can join Kou while holding your indirect grandchild, since you didn't get to interact with her yesterday."

"That is a wonderful idea," Ryze says. "I'll ignore the comment about sisters. I'm not about to have kids with a lizard."

I wonder how much of that is true. I can see her eyes switching between my waist and Shimmer's baby. "That works for me," I say. "Any other issues, or are we ready to go?"

"I'll fucking shut up and deal with this," Victoria says. "I- But I am fucking tired of meeting with Queens. I would like things to be fucking simpler, like if you fucking had others handle this shit."

"I'm an Empress. Do you not want to be around me?" I ask.

"Don't fucking pull that shit," Victoria says. "Any other royal would have my ass whipped for the shit I say. You just ask me to fucking stop, then keep asking my ass to come around."

"I guess," I say. "Maybe I could whip you a bit and see if that works. Fluvis has shown she's really good with a whip."

"Don't you fucking dare," Victoria says. "I said I would fucking shut up, so don't go around threatening to fucking whip my ass. We need to fucking leave."

"Haha, fine, it'll be a long walk, so we should get started," I say.

"You're joking, right?" Ryze says. "You'd need a week to get down there on foot. I can carry you all. It'll make for a better entrance anyway. I do owe you for yesterday."

"That sounds a lot fucking better than walking down a damn mountain," Victoria says.

We weren't really going to walk, but I think it was a clever trick to see how much Ryze is willing to work with me. "Thank you," I say.

"Outside, then," Ryze says. She transforms and walks toward the cave entrance with her little ducklings following behind her. Getting onto her back may be our new issue, but I'm sure she has a way for us to get up there. Or I can just beg Eterna to help us.

Rzye squats down outside in the massive pit Eterna has made through the years, lowering her back enough that we should all be able to jump up. I wonder if Eterna... And she just jumps up first. Though it was probably a good thing to show us where to jump.

Victoria goes next, and Kou stands next to her, waiting to help me up.

That's so nice of her. I hope she helps Shimmer, too, since she hasn't been bringing her maid around much. I should start bringing extra maids with us if we're bringing the kids around. I step up next, and Shimmer passes up our kid so she can join us.

We're really about to use a True Phoenix as a carriage.

"Come on," Eterna says. "Mothers sometimes carry their young on long flights. Up here, we'll be safe from falling off. It should be a short flight, unless Mother is about to show off for some reason."

"I'll get this done quickly," Ryze says. "I don't feel like drawing too much of a crowd. Is everyone on?"

"Yes," I say.

We launch into the sky and immediately start falling. I guess the city at the base of the mountain is the capital. Despite the wind rushing around us, we all stay in place easily. I wonder if dragons can carry people so easily. It'll have to wait until I finish changing; there's no need to deal with Yzzorres for something so silly. It isn't like Yzzorres would be willing to do anything but sleep. Oh, and she's in the wrong form. I'll be able to change forms before she can.

Ryze slowly pulls out of the dive, making sure we don't feel the change in direction too much, and then circles the city. We can't see much past her massive wings, but I'm guessing there are a lot of people staring up at the sky. She only goes around the city once, I think, before we land in a large courtyard, and then she settles down again for us to slide off her back. Eterna shows us the way once again.

Ryze takes off once we're away from her, deciding that being around me while I'm fucking the Queen would be too tempting for her.

"Ready to go?" I ask. "There's no need to waste any time."

"One second, My Empress," Kou says. "Let me check over your dress, and then we can go. Shyla works hard on them, so I need to make sure that everyone can appreciate her work."

"Ok," I say. Shimmer's looking at Ryze flying off into the distance. I wonder if the Queen often talks to the true phoenixes. I'm sure the dragon Queen rarely ever has any interaction with the lazy mountain. But Ryze seems a bit more approachable. Or at least, she's more likely to want to come by to complain about things, and the Queen wouldn't be able to tell her to go away. That would be a great way to make your reign short. Of course, I'm sure the stress from hearing the true phoenix complain would also shorten your life.

"All good, My Empress," Kou says. "We're right on time, so we can take our time with this. With our entrance, we should continue to flaunt our importance, just a bit. I know you don't love that idea, but you have to do small things to make sure the people who are normally at the top of the ladder know there are a few rungs above them."

"Walking slowly agrees with my belly," I say. I'll need to be careful not to do this too often and not be so late in getting to things. I can't let that bleed into how I act around my kids.

Shimmer leads the way with Ryze now out of sight. The few maids and servants in the hall all bow when we pass them, and two guards immediately open the doors to the throne room when we get there.

"Empress Alzi, and her Mates: Eterna, Victoria, and Princess Shimmer," someone shouts out as we enter.

Flametalon and her harem are standing around the throne. Off to the side is also one of Shimmer's sisters. Someone must have gotten demoted for her stupidity.

"Welcome," Flametalon says. "Coming in with Eterna is a welcome surprise, but Ryze conveying you here herself is a beautiful show for the city. What can I do for you, Empress Alzi?"

"Mother, it is your turn to carry her children," Shimmer says, handing off our child to Kou.

"I see," Flametalon says. "Is there a reason for this? I'm willing, of course, but I would like to know what has brought this about. I didn't expect her to want anything to do with me now that you're on a path to being a happy pair. You are fulfilling your duty, Shimmer?"

"I believe I am," Shimmer says. "I haven't asked about the exact reason for the desire, but that is the request from my mate."

This is kind of stupid. It sounded really nice when it was just putting Shimmer in her place, but now it feels a bit strange. I mean, I will be breeding the Queen over her own throne in front of her mates and one of her kids. That does make it a bit better, and I'll get her to promise me that Shimmer will be the next Queen. But do I really care about that? She would have to be stupid to have someone else take the throne. It's the closest they'll ever get to having one of the true Phoenixes on the throne, after all.

And maybe Shimmer will become a true phoenix, herself.

"If that is what the Empress requests, then we can do so," Flametalon says. "Is there anything else?"

"No," I say. "For you, at least. For now. I'm planning to see the Goddess, and I'm sure she'll have some silly request for me. But it shouldn't be much after I fill you up, and Shimmer already knows that her future has plenty of kids in store for her. I doubt there will be much else to do. So, if you want to strip now."

"Excuse me?"