Old East- Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3 – Domestic Bli… err Chaos.

I returned to Yonderton just before sunset with Daria and Sema in tow. As I flew overhead, thanks to one of Rava’s potions, I realized just how large the town was becoming. Fortunately, my city manager, Rozelle, had possessed the forethought to ensure the initial walls of the town were much larger than I had thought was necessary. But even then, she could only make them so large because of the need to defend the walls and limited personnel.

Except as I saw a small city of several thousand tents outside the city, I realized that population was not going to be our problem. There were approximately ten thousand men, women, and children still waiting on housing. The walls had been broken down on one side to allow the city to expand. I refused the concept of an inner city and an outer city.

Oh, we might develop different layers of defense later on, but for now, that was a concern for future Rob. That people outside the wall were already on top of the hundreds of new homes which had gone up inside the city as well as barracks for single men and temporary living.

Rather than let my mind dwell on that, I focused my senses instead on the sheriff’s office. It was my home, but I barely recognized it any longer. It was now four stories high and in a square formation with the training area incorporated into the center of the structure along with gardens and areas for children to play.

So far, there were only a handful of children. Robbie and Sara, of course, but Denny also had two kids now and a few of the other deputies had children as well. It was interesting how many couples were happy to join as deputies or deputies and clerks once they found out that no extra services would be required of them. I had all the affection I could ever handle as it was, and was already being pushed to accept Betsy.

It wasn’t the cowkin who was pushing for her to become a seventh wife, but rather the rest of my wives. Only Daria gave me any peace on the subject. Mursha had become best friends with Betsy as they bonded over all kinds of things. It didn’t hurt that the orc blacksmith was working on upgrades for Betsy’s axe.

Her axe contained the soul of her father. There was a story there, but all she had told us so far was that it had to do with revenge against one of the gangs. Her reluctance to share that bit of information was one of the reasons that I kept her at arm’s length. Still, she was a valuable deputy and had taken up the role of serving as commander of our militia.

Sema was even more of a question. Ironically, she was the one available and powerful woman who Lina wasn’t pushing towards my bed. The question of how to deal with the fairies was on my mind every day, but the forces from Westerton and Centrum had made themselves a more pressing issue by the way they were attacking us.

When I finished my aerial inspection about the time my Potion of Flight was about to run out, I landed in the courtyard inside my residence. The first thing I saw was Nimeera playing with Robbie and Sara. The catkin was making shadows dance on the wall. The children watched and giggled at the shapes she made.

I didn’t say a word, but stood there watching. After battle, even the passion I shared with Daria wasn’t as cleansing as the simple joy of watching my children play and laugh. The fact that Nimeera wasn’t either of their biological mothers didn’t mean anything. Sara and Robbie were both able to call all of their mother’s sister wives, Auntie, and they all worked together to care for the kids.

Finally, Nimeera said, “I have a surprise for you kids.”

I didn’t know what she had in mind until she added. “Close your eyes.”

Both the kids covered their faces with their hands. They were growing up so quickly and both seemed to be around two years old, although neither was nearly that old. They did as Auntie Nimeera ordered although she had to remind them. “No peaking. If you peak, they you won’t get your surprise.”

She then turned and winked at me. The bond would have told her that I was there, but I wasn’t sure where she was going with this surprise thing. She signaled me and I came forward. Then I squatted down to be closer to the kids height. Nimeera turned them both around and then said, “Okay, you can open your eyes.”

I was greeted by squeals of delight when washed away the blood of the battle in a single instant. Sara reacted slightly faster with her wings to push her forward, but Robbie was in my arms just an instant later than they both said, “Dada. Up! Up!.”

I knew what they both wanted. It was funny that Sara could fly, albeit not all that well yet, but she still liked it when I jumped in the air with them. I squeezed both of them close to me and then sent ki into my legs before I shot upward like a rocket. My legs propelled me easily a hundred feet into the air.

The laughter got louder. I had figured out how to extend my ki aura around them. It only worked if they were close to me but with that in place, even their mothers couldn’t complain about me being reckless with them. We hit the ground and before my legs had even straightened out from catching us, they were saying, “Again! Again!”

I was only too happy to oblige and ended up spending the next couple of minutes bouncing them and even doing flips in the air. That made them gasp a bit. Which of course encouraged me to do it again. Finally, though, I set them down next to Nimeera. She smiled at me, but I quickly grabbed her and kissed her.

Somehow, her round belly only made her all that much more attractive to me. Robbie laughed and Sara said, “Dada kissing Auntie NimNim.”

I savored the kiss but once I finally broke it, I bent down and asked, Robbie, “Should I go give mommy a kiss?”

He wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, which made Nimeera and I laugh. From the kitchen door which opened onto the square we heard, Robbie’s mother say, “Most definitely.”

I gave Nimeera one more peck on the cheek and then raced over to my bunnykin wife. She greeted me with just as much passion as I could have hoped for. Just as exciting, I caught a whiff of dinner. When our kiss ended and I tried to push past her she said, “Oh no, all your wives have been worried about you. No dinner for you until you go greet all of them.”

The stern way she spoke as she said it made me want to ask if she was serving soup, but I knew the reference would be lost on her. Finally, half an hour later, we were all sitting down as a family at our much larger dining room table. Gone were the days of grabbing a meal in the kitchen. The joke, though, was that I wondered how long it would be before I’d have to order a larger table to be crafted for us or even when I’d need a larger dining room.

Several of the deputies and clerks joined us. They were not family in the same way, but we worked so closely with all of them that except for the occasional family only meal, our dinners were a large affair.

Once we were drinking coffee after dinner, Rava said, “So, are you ready to make the transition? Your foundation seems to be growing more unstable the longer you push it off.”

“It is. I’ve started to get notices about seepage. But, I have a feeling that it will end up taking a few days for me to completely reach A rank. This doesn’t feel like any of the times before and trust me, going from C to B was quite the difference.” Even as I replied, I felt something tickling the back of my mind about how Rava had worded her question.

Since confirming that she was pregnant, Rava had been more mellow. She was still her detail oriented self but she just practically gushed warmth and affection, at least for me, her sister-wives and their children. Once my growing Soul stat enabled me to detect the split within the soul residing in her, she had become positively giddy.

When I had first felt it, I thought something was wrong, but Sema was the one to reassure us. Apparently, there are two types of twins. Well, I knew that. At least on Earth, twins could be fraternal or maternal. On Olimero, twins were only determined by the mother, as was pretty much everything about the child. But there were still two different variants of twins, it was just based upon their souls.

Most commonly the mixture of mana and DNA which led to the creation of a baby on Olimero produced only one baby and one soul. Very rarely, two babies would be produced and each would have their own soul. However, once in a generation, there would be situation where a single body and soul was created but then split into two bodies and two souls, but each remained like they were half of the other.

Rava, of course, went to researching it right away with her unique mana skill.  and determined that the connection between her two babies would be akin to our soul bonds. Except it would be even closer. They were not two souls fused together, but instead were one soul which had been split. What that meant for us no one seemed to know.

Today, the faint worry which Rava had hidden underneath her affection was gone. I could sense that subtle strain was gone. That realization was the last piece I needed to put the puzzle together.

“So what does Telmorra call her handmaidens?”

My beautiful elf blushed. It actually looked quite odd with her purple hair. Not that I’d ever tell her that.

The other wives all looked at each other. Several of them exchanged knowing looks, but Lina blurted out, “When did this happen? How come I’m always the last one to know anything? When did Rob even find out?”

Rava ignored Lina’s questions as she looked at me while saying, “I came on too heavy with the question didn’t I?”

“Sorta, it was more the way you phrased it. You’ve never been able to detect anything about my cultivation before so, that got me to thinking. Then I took a closer look at you through the bond and realized the uncertainty you’ve been feeling about the twins was gone.

“From there, it wasn’t hard to assume that you must have gotten outside information to put your mind at ease. So tell me what did Telmorra give you? I wanna make sure you got a good deal or I’ll have to have words with her.”

Betsy burst out laughing when I said that. All my wives looked at her and she shrank back into her seat. “What, I thought he was joking. He just said he was gonna bitch a goddess out if she screwed with Rava.”

Josie shook her head. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Sema snorted in shock and nearly fell off the foxkin’s shoulder. “You’re kidding right?”

“Nope, he did it before, and it wasn’t even about taking care of his wives.”

Lina said, “If there’s one thing you don’t wanna do even if you are a goddess, it’s mess with Rob’s family. He’d wrestle a dragon with his bare hands to protect one of us. And probably win.”

Rava said, “She was quite generous and you know I’d been thinking about it for a while. Since you helped me learn that my innate mana is Research Mana, Telmorra seemed like a much better fit than Korkanis ever was.”

She has helped advance my knowledge of alchemy in ways I didn’t even consider and genuinely enjoy the pursuit of knowledge. She helped me form a mana cultivator’s core and gifted me with Arcane Mana, but most importantly she gave me her personal pledge that the twins would be okay. She will protect their birth and helped me understand how to raise them to reach their potential.”

Several of the wives came and were hugging her. Babies were fruit of a family and hearing that Rava was going to have a good harvest made everyone excited. I was happy for her too, but had to rein in my emotions as I asked her, “And what did she demand in return?”