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Arc#5 Chapter 5: Resolve
🕑 Added 2024-11-04 07:06:56 +0000 UTCAs the scent of paper wafted into his nose, Reivan couldn't help but smile.
The royal archives looked the same as he remembered it. Books. Just, books everywhere you looked. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves of the good stuff.
That said, not everything was the same. As it turned out, the old lore keeper who knew where everything was had changed from his childhood. It was a little sad to think about, but such is life. And who knew, maybe the old man was still alive and enjoying retirement with dozens of great-grandkids or something. Not everything had to be a tragedy.
In any case, since the royal archives weren't built for public use, they weren't optimized for people to find what they were looking for themselves—only knights and the royal family could peruse them after all. As such, you either had to know where you needed to search or ask the lorekeeper. Unlike the public library, it didn't have a sitting area. You could scan the books to see if they were what you were looking for then leave. That was it. Sticking around wasn't advised.
Of course, there were exceptions.
'She has such horrible posture...'
Reivan's steps were soundless as he paced closer and closer to a young woman sitting with her back leaning on one of the shelves, hunched over a book she had placed on her lap. He suddenly had to stop and hide when she stood up, grunting as she stretched her undoubtedly stiff back. They weren't that loud, but his hearing was good enough to hear how her spine cracked.
Clearly, she had been in an uncomfortable position for a while.
"Ugh, my poor back..." Mira groaned in a hushed voice before grumbling to herself. "Stupid Aizenians. Is it so hard to put a few chairs in here? How's a girl supposed to read comfortably like this? Better yet, put some beds in here for crying out loud..."
Reivan couldn't help but smirk as he listened, moving with the quiet intention to shadow her. He wanted to see how long it would take for her to notice someone was walking five feet behind her.
After she returned the book she was reading to its proper slot, Mira lumbered over to another aisle of shelves. Eventually, she stopped upon a rather familiar part of the archives—one dedicated to history.
Not just recent history either. This was the place you went to if you wanted to look stuff up from more than a thousand years ago. Reivan had personally read some of the tomes from this area, seeing as major historical points in the kingdom's life were integral to his education. Every time he thought about it, he felt amazed by the fact that he could learn so much from people who had died so long ago.
Valter wasn't even alive at that point yet. And he was the second oldest entity in the kingdom.
"Should be around here..." Mira looked around as she continued to mutter to herself. In her hand was a set of notes with her hastily scrawled handwriting on it. Strangely enough, they were in English, so she was putting her new knowledge to good use. "Let's see..."
Reivan took a look at her notes, immediately knowing which book she wanted. It was one of the ones that royals had to know by heart, so he had no trouble finding it. With a lazy beckon, the book flew into his hand from a row so high up that a normal person required a ladder to reach it.
'Huh. This is newly transcribed.'
The hardcover looked a lot fresher than he remembered, so it must have been a renewed copy. Which made sense since it was a book that was perused a lot, making it more susceptible to wear and tear no matter how careful the readers were. His fingers fondly ran across the tome's spine, reminded of when he was still a young prince—well, a younger prince. The familiar texture also reminded him of how long it had been since he really hunkered down and read a few books. He had so little time for his old hobbies nowadays.
"Where the heck is it...?" Mira clicked her tongue. She still hadn't noticed his presence behind her or how he just sucked the book she was looking for into his hand. "Is it not here? Did I get it wrong? Damnit, it's all because they don't put up signs in this place... So inefficient..."
Reivan held in a snicker as he tapped her shoulder. Before she saw him, however, he immediately turned into a shadow and avoided her line of sight.
"Huh?" Mira's eyes widened when she realized nobody was behind her, so she turned around again. Then looked around at the areas below and above her. "Wh-who... Is anyone there?"
Sensing that she was starting to actually get scared, he materialized right in front of her and took the book she was looking for out of his spatial ring. Unlike the Spirit Tower's archives, the royal archives didn't enchant their books so they couldn't be put into a storage artifact.
Not the ones on the first floor, that is. The ones below, on the other hand, did.
"Relax," Reivan said. "It's just me."
"Oh." Mira sighed in relief for a moment before she frowned. "So it was you. Don't princes have better things to do that toy with innocent maidens?"
"Not this one, sadly. Toying with innocent maidens is my favorite pastime. Right up there with extorting hapless villagers of everything they have and scheming for world domination."
"I see. My horizons have been expanded today."
"A little prickly today, are we?" Reivan raised a brow and chuckled. He then tapped the book with his knuckles, directing her attention toward it. "Anyway, is this what you're looking for? I'll carry it for you."
"Who needs your help—" Mira took one look at the extremely thick book he was holding, her gaze lingering on the title and then the actual size. "Okay. That thing looks heavy."
"This particular year in our history was extremely eventful, you see."
“And you can just wave it around with one hand, huh?”
“I’m a little strong,” Reivan admitted with some shyness. It felt a bit weird to boast about his meager capabilities while knowing just what the people at the top were capable of.
Though he supposed he still retained some bragging rights. Considering how few in number Ascendants and Transcendents were in comparison to the population of the world, he was in the top percentile when it came to power.
The thing is, there was a massive gap in ability within that top percentile. A handful of people could solo the majority.
Some of his feelings must have leaked through in his demeanor because Mira didn’t retort. Which placed them in a bit of an awkward position because the conversation had stalled.
“Anway.” Reivan cleared his throat and changed the subject. “How long have you been skulking around in here?”
Mira snorted. “I don’t skulk.”
“Right. Fine. How long have you not been skulking around in here then?”
She grimaced at him but hummed in contemplation, seriously giving it some thought. It was clear in her expression that she wasn’t particularly sure of herself though. “Since dinner?”
Reivan scoffed in exasperation. “Mira, it is noon now. You’ve been here since last night?”
“That… That depends.”
“What the hell does that even mean?”
“If you look at it in a different way, I’m just early for today's session.”
Reivan shook his head. “You still suck at English, so don’t try to trick me with semantics.”
Mira clicked her tongue. “Why do you care anyway…?”
“I thought we had an understanding.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
With a sigh, Reivan stopped and pinned her against the wall. She squealed a little and shrunk into herself. But he glowered down at her anyway. “We had an agreement. That you’d take good care of yourself.”
“B-But I am…” Mira’s eyes swam, trying very hard to look anywhere but at him.
He didn’t need to see the notification to know she was lying. What’s funny was that the notification proved that she thought she wasn’t taking care of herself.
“Hunched over for hours,” Reivan drawled. “Sitting on the cold hard floor. Presumably skipping meals too. Is that your idea of taking care of yourself.?”
“Well…”
“If it is, how about I have your relatives live like that too? No beds or mats or chairs. Only two meals a day and a cold hard floor.”
Mira pursed her lips before quietly grumbling to herself. “That’s being unfair…”
“Maybe. What can you do about it though?” Reivan sneered, before stepping away from her and sighing. “There won’t be a second time, I hope.”
She nodded, her gaze lowered.
Seeing her look like a child who had just gotten scolded reminded Reivan of his little sister, Kyouka. That young lady hadn’t been the paragon of good behavior as a child either—which made sense since a child couldn’t possibly know how to properly act in every situation from the start.
With their parents gone, it had fallen on his younger self to scold his sibling. It generally went over well though, since Kyouka had been a rather obedient child. She’d rarely make the same mistake twice.
The woman before him was not a child though. And this wasn’t her first offense.
‘God. It feels like I have a teenage daughter…’
In a way, maybe dealing with Mira was good practice for parenthood. He was looking forward to seeing his kids a little too much.
Mira then cleared her throat, presumably to clear away her embarrassment. “Anyway, I was starting to think you’ve finally gotten bored of annoying me, but then you showed up today. Why are you here?”
“We’re in the Aizen Kingdom’s royal palace and I just happen to be a prince. I kind of live here, remember?”
“Let me rephrase that. Why are you here specifically? In this portion of this very very large palace.”
Reivan licked his lips and shrugged. “I have some news relevant to your current situation.”
That got her frowning fast. Mira hesitantly glanced up at him. “Am I…?”
“No, it’s not whatever you’re thinking,” he cut her off. “I’m sure you know that the republic has essentially ceased to function.”
“You’ve said something to that effect… though you said it was only a prediction.”
“The prediction has come true.”
Mira gulped. “Is it really that bad…?”
Reivan nodded gravely. “Only ten percent of Arkhan was directly affected by the fight with the Sage King. Then thirty percent of it was either damaged by fights between Argonia’s forces and the silver cloaks they were hunting down. That leaves the last sixty percent relatively unaffected—half of which, has already been converted into imperial protectorates. That said, a bunch of previously dead volcanoes became very active for some reason—presumably because of a Transcendent close with the element of fire having fought nearby—and now even the supposedly untouched sixty percent is being affected in some way.”
"Wha..."
"So basically, the entirety of the nation is suffering in some way."
“That much…!?”
“Unfortunately. Most of the untouched lands were in Western Arkhan while the south was devastated—with the capital left as nothing but a crater. Some of the areas between the former capital and what used to be Vel Ayala have been equally devastated too.”
“What about the north?” she asked, obviously concerned over her former homeland.
Reivan recalled the report he’d received from what little operatives were left within Arkhan. “As the border between the empire and the republic, the north was particularly saturated with silver cloaks. And they naturally resisted when the imperials showed up to claim their heads.”
Perhaps unconsciously, Mira’s right thumb found itself on her lips, chewing on her nail as she sunk into the mire of her own thoughts. Goodness knows what would have happened if her family hadn’t come with Reivan’s people during the attempt to extract them.
“What now?” she posited after some reflection. “What happens to the republic now?”
“Well…” Reivan tried very hard to think of ways to phrase his words without sounding too harsh. He knew that for how she acted, she actually loved her homeland enough to not even consider defecting. “You can’t really call it a nation anymore. Just a collection of cities disconnected from each other, ruled by their own local governments.”
“No. What I mean is what are you going to do about it?”
He did not miss the implication that “you” meant “the kingdom” rather than him as an individual. So he gave her as reasonable an answer as he could.
“We’re going to establish a vassal nation with Lageton as the capital,” Reivan said. “Well, it’s essentially a puppet state. But we're going to start it on a more peaceful note to avoid ruffling the people's feathers.”
“And how are you going to peacefully make a new country out of a fallen nation's people?”
“There’s going to be an election and I’m running.”
Mira’s brows shot up in surprise. “You?”
“Yes. Naturally, the election will be rigged,” Reivan shamelessly revealed.
“Oh, yeah. Because it’s perfectly ordinary and ethical to rig elections.”
“Of course. Nothing strange about that. they are entirely dependent on the kingdom's aid at the moment. Also, the current governor is already in our pocket and a lot of companies that keep the place running are on my side.”
‘Well, rather than being on my side, Ouroboros owns them. So I and Elsa own them.’
After clearing his throat, he continued. “The city is more on the industrial side and depended on shipments from other areas for its food. That's not available now, sadly. And that means that Lageton and the surrounding areas will be dependent on the kingdom’s exports to survive. Even without rigging it, I will probably still win the election.”
Mira groaned in realization. “Because everyone who’s not an idiot will realize that they need you to win if they’re to survive…”
“Exactly. As we speak, the people of Lageton are being made aware that their peace is thanks to me.”
“Uh-huh… And then what?”
“Hm… Well, once I become governor, all that’s left is to declare independence and start a new nation—whose name is yet to be decided. Immediately after, martial law will be declared on account of the literal war that’s going on and the prospect of fending off Argonia’s clutches. From there, the newborn nation will transition away from democracy and be converted into a monarchy or something else that will allow us to do as we please. Because a bunch of politicians voting for every national decision is much too slow for what is about to happen to this continent.”
“Is it really okay to tell me all of this?”
“To be honest, it doesn’t really matter even if you tell other people.” Reivan shrugged. “We are the only choice the people of Lageton have now, Mira. Do you understand? The other option is to be left to fend for themselves, which I guarantee won’t last long. Or to submit to the empire—and you know what imperial warbands do to conquered territory as a reward to its soldiers, right?”
Biting her lip in utter frustration, Mira nodded. “I get it… You guys are the best option. Even if you’re partly to blame for all of this in the first place.”
Reivan let her pointed glare bounce off him. “We admit that the Sage King’s demise is partly our fault. And we also deserve some responsibility for the damage caused by the fight between Transcendents—even though Sir Rolf was the only one who purposely controlled his power to cause as little damage as possible. But the others? We are faultless. It is the empire that hunted down the silver cloaks. We tried to organize what is left of the battlemages and actually shelter them from annihilation.”
“Hmph.” Mira turned away but didn’t offer a retort.
“In any case…” Reivan hooked her chin and forced her to look at him before letting go. “I think your family would prefer living in Lageton as opposed to starting over here—even though I highly suggest just staying.”
“That’s…” she trailed off, clearly thinking about it. Only a few heartbeats passed before she nodded in agreement, however. “I think so too. Arkhan is our home.”
“Will you ask them for me? We’ll still compensate them for the assets they lost in your hometown, but the land will be near Lageton instead. Or some other nearby city, if they so prefer. Nearby towns and cities will likely be conquered by our side anyway.”
“I’ll ask…”
“Thanks. Anyway, that leaves you,” Reivan gestured at her. “What’ll you do? Are you staying here or will you come with me to Lageton?”
Hesitantly, Mira looked around the royal archives. There was so much knowledge stored in just his massive hall, ready to be absorbed. And she so wanted to do just that.
“I’ll go with you.”
However, she quickly came to an answer, a resolute expression on her face.
Reivan released the breath he hadn’t noticed was being held, asking a question to hide his relief. “To be honest, I thought you’d stay.”
She shook her head, looking down at the book he was carrying for her. “I’m here partly to sate my curiosity and to gather knowledge to advance Arkhan into the next age. But now, what Arkhan needs isn’t to improve, but to survive. And I can’t help with that if I’m all the way over here.”
“What do you plan to do to help, if I may ask? Any ideas?”
“Uh…” Mira groaned and scratched her head. “I think I’ll have to get back to you on that. Maybe a week from now.”
“So dependable.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
“There we go.” Reivan chuckled. “Finally, a decent proposition.”
Realization struck her a moment later and she blushed as she furiously beat his shoulder in utter mortification. “You! Perverted! Scoundrel…!”
He continued laughing, completely unfazed by her attacks. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re coming with me.”
“Urgh…” She stopped hitting him, looking up to meet his gaze with those doe-like blue eyes of hers. “Why?"
"Because that's just how I feel. What do you want from me?"
"I think I know why. So you can have someone to toy with?" Mira looked at him with suspicion before lowering her voice in what he could only assume was a mocking impression of how he talked. "Oh, let's just be mean to the girl who can't fight back and who falls for the kissing prank all the time.”
“Maybe you're right.”
“Die.”
Reivan grinned, before suddenly bringing his face close and forcing her up against the shelf with nowhere to retreat. “Well, maybe I also just want you around? Maybe that's all there is to it.”
Mira tried to look away as she always did in these types of situations, but he hooked her chin and forced her to face forward again. “You’re too close…”
“Am I though? One can say we’re not close enough, no?”
She groaned, trying very hard to breathe quietly. “I h-heard, y’know? That you’re getting married by the end of the month…”
Reivan raised a brow at that, wondering where she heard it. The likely culprit would have been his sister, but it could have honestly just been the maids making idle conversation, unknowingly doing so when Mira was within earshot. In any case, it didn’t really matter to him if she knew. He had no intention of hiding it either, he simply didn’t have the chance to tell her.
“Is that a problem?” he asked, tilting his forehead forward so it touched with hers for a moment.
Mira squirmed but surprisingly didn’t make much of an effort to get away. “I’d… I’d like to think it’s a very big problem… Doing all this when you’re getting married soon…”
“Did you also hear that I’m going to have a whole bunch of concubines?”
“Yes—”
“Then this shouldn’t matter, no?”
“...Y-Y-You’re a piece of trash,” she said, her eyes narrowed in disdain for only a moment before he let go of her and stepped away again.
“Maybe that’s true.” Reivan chuckled, self-aware about how it may seem to other people. Though he supposed they weren’t that far off. “Anyway, good talk. I’ll leave you alone for now. Oh, and remember, talk to your family. And don’t spend all day here. Also, take care of yourself—or else.”
“You’d make a great mom. You've got the nagging part down pat.”
Ignoring her snide remarks, he tried to think of what else to say. It was when his gaze fell on the book he'd been holding did he realized something so obvious that it made him slap his forehead in exasperation.
Mira frowned as she looked at him like he had three eyes. “Wh-what’s wrong with you all of a sudden…? You've finally gone crazy or what?”
“I just remembered something.” Reivan took out one of his many spare spatial storage rings and extracted all the stuff he’d placed inside, replacing it with a few others—including the thick tome he had been carrying for her. He then seized her hand and pushed the ring into her palm. “I’m sure you know what this is.”
“It’s a ring,” she commented before her eyes shot upward in surprised realization. “It’s a spatial storage ring.”
“The highest class. It can probably store a few shelves.”
“Wah…”
“Remember? You promised to help me pick one out? Well, I don’t really need your help anymore. But here’s one anyway.”
“W-wait a minute, I’m pretty sure this stuff is super valuable.”
“It is.”
“Then—”
“Instead of sticking around here,” Reivan cut her off. “Just take what you want to read with you to your room. Ah, but make sure to return everything within the day in case someone else needs it and to only take, say, maybe five at a time. There are also a few armchairs that I like inside. Test ‘em out to see which you like. If you ever feel too lazy to go back to your room—which I know you will—just use them here. I’ll tell the lorekeeper that you’re free to take a chair out for yourself and borrow a few books.”
Mira seemed a little overwhelmed with all the special treatment she was getting. “You don’t have to do all that…”
“It’s okay. I want to.” Reivan smiled, gently grabbing her hand and giving it a bit of a squeeze before letting go. “I’ll see you around.”
She seemed to want to say something, so he waited for her. But in the end, she just went quiet and walked off to another aisle, presumably to find some other book. With his business with her finished, Reivan made his way out of the royal archives after a little chat with the new lorekeeper—who was apparently the previous lorekeeper’s grandson.
‘How nice. It’s like their family’s thing now.’
Musingly, he wondered if any of his kids were going to want to be like him too.
════════════════════════════════
Surprisingly, Reivan met a familiar face just as he stepped out of the archives.
“Hector,” he said, with mild surprise. The mild scent of cologne roiled off his best friend so it was clear as to what the young man’s purpose was. “Off to shag my sister, huh?”
“Can you not say it like that? Please?” Hector retorted. Noticeably, a denial did not follow. The bastard. “Besides, are you really one to talk? You’re doing it to my sister too! You’re even getting married soon!”
“...Good point.”
“Oh, but just to make it clear, it wasn’t like I was doing any of this to get back at you or anything.”
“I know, I know. You’re all lovey-dovey with Mimi, huh?”
Hector smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “Yeah. I fell really hard. Like, really hard.”
“Oh, yeah? How hard?”
“Ease up on the teasing, Van. Don’t forget all the crap I know about you. We grew up together, yeah?”
Sensing that he was on the back foot on this, Reivan immediately de-escalated. “Can you relax? It was a joke… though it ended up being real. Congratulations.”
Hector nodded and lightly punched his arm. “Yep. Thanks.”
Reivan swept back his hair as he regarded the dark-haired youth in front of him with a complicated gaze. “Still, I kind of expected it, but don’t you think you should’ve waited until after marriage to, y’know… get her pregnant? Her belly was bulging when I saw her!”
Nobody had seen fit to tell him while he was in Arkhan, but Mimi was two to three months pregnant. She was, like all warbeasts, fit and lithe so any changes to that were extremely noticeable. Obviously, he noticed her baby bump and was flabbergasted that nobody informed him of the pleasant news in advance.
She even acted smug about it. As if having babies was a competition or something.
‘And it was this guy who did it, no question.’
It wasn’t like his sister was a slut who slept around, so there was only one suspect—the young handsome knight she was always seen with and was allegedly in a relationship with.
Hector’s ears blushed crimson a little, averting his gaze. “I mean… She kept asking for it… It’s not my—okay, it is my fault. But still..! You get it, right? It’s really hard to refuse when you’re in the moment. Especially if they act all cute…”
“No, man. You’re on your own on this.” Reivan shook his head and raised both of his hands, denying the accusation. “I was able to stop myself until very recently. And that’s only because my wedding’s in a matter of weeks anyway.”
“Urgh…” Hector winced at the cutting words only to counter with his own. “This coming from someone who has two fiancees. And that doesn’t even include concubines.”
“Ugh…”
“And I heard he recently brought home some Arkhanian chick too.”
“Ugh…!” Reivan hastily gripped Hector’s shoulder to signal a temporary truce. “Stop. We’re friends. Why are we hurting each other?”
“True… So I definitely shouldn’t mention how there’s, like, a line of concubine applicants outside the palace right now.”
“I thought we agreed not to hurt each…!?” Reivan grabbed him by the neck.
But similarly to Helen, Hector could freely transform into the wind as well, easily escaping his attack with a confident grin.
‘And I was starting to put it out of my mind too…! This guy just had to remind me!’
Though he’d tried his best to escape the fact, Reivan could not deny that there was indeed a line of bachelorettes outside the palace hoping against hope to get an audience with him—and potentially become a concubine too.
Somehow, information that he was building a harem got out to the general public.
Due to his efforts in the past, he was relatively well-known and his portraits were all over the newspapers. Not to mention that he was a literal prince in a nation where the royalty may as well have been gods among men. There was the exhibition match where he fought three half-ascendants too.
So when the news that he was looking for concubines got out to the public, there was understandably some turmoil. Reivan, naturally, chose to respond to it in the most reasonable way—by pretending the problem didn’t exist.
Besides, his concubines-to-be had already been chosen. He’d even met most of them personally and found their personalities or demeanor decent enough.
While some were daughters of knights, a lot of them were actually from trustworthy families that had served national interests for generations. In Aizen, that meant a lot more than being well-connected. After all, despite being a monarchy, the kingdom had the tendencies of a meritocracy too—meaning if a family served the royal family for generations, that meant they were extremely capable. If he was going to marry for the sake of only having children, then he may as well make babies with women who had good genes.
Or at least, that was the reasoning he was told. There was probably some internal politics involved too, but the explanation made enough sense that Reivan didn’t mind it too much.
And besides, knowing what role he was supposed to play overseas after his marriage, Reivan found the idea of marrying all these women even more attractive. Not because of lascivious reasons, but because he valued the skills these women from various fields could offer.
Aside from mothering his kids, they could serve as his advisors and consultants, or outright help him manage things as part of his internal staff.
He got to help his mother and uncle revive his warbeast bloodline, receive a large influx of talented women who could help him in various ways, increase the chances that his kids wouldn’t be as dim as him, and obviously, the very fact that he’d get concubines out of it was a bit of a plus too.
It was like shooting down a bunch of birds with one stone.
With all that said, his concubines underwent rigorous selection processes before he even got to know about them. Not everyone could be trusted, after all. And too much ambition was a gamebreaker. The woman also had to have a relatively good personality so they didn’t serve as a bad influence on his children—who may or may not hold high authority in the future.
For his concubines, Reivan couldn’t just pick any random hot chick off the streets and call it a day.
Each one had to pass the various requirements to mother a member of the royal family.
‘Well, technically, my kids won’t be part of the royal family anymore.’
Reivan himself would forever be a prince. But that did not make his children princes. They would be commoners on paper, though obviously, they would be the type of commoners who had golden spoons shoved into their mouths upon birth.
None of his kids would have a claim to the throne, basically. Unless Roland and all his kids died all of a sudden—which hopefully never happened. In that scenario, Reivan would become king, and his progeny would become the main royal bloodline.
‘Ahhhh. I don’t wanna think about any of this.’
To most men, having hundreds or thousands of women literally lining up to offer themselves to him was a dream come true. But to Reivan, it was just a burden—not to mention actually accepting them all. In the first place, how much time would he even have to spend to knock up all those women? And the sheer volume of sex he would need to have was staggering. Because of his special abilities, he had infinite stamina so he could do it, theoretically, but that wasn’t the point.
Wouldn’t he be utterly sick of it if he did it that much? He’d never get turned on by a naked woman again, surely.
A terrifying thought.
‘My god… What if I loop around and become gay after having all that sex…!? Is that a thing? Does that actually happen!?’
“Oh, by the way,” Hector, the ungrateful wretch that reminded Reivan of his woes, punched his pal as if he’d just remembered something. “I think your mother’s gathering a bunch of warbeasts to be your concubine too. Did you know?”
Reivan sighed. “I did.”
That had been a suggestion on his part, actually.
His uncle and mother wanted to revive their warbeast bloodline. And though they probably wouldn’t have minded human children, accepting them with warmth the same way they accepted him, Reivan knew they would prefer warbeast children.
And according to Zell, a half-breed like him was an anomaly. Also because of her, he actually knew the chances when two people from two different humanoid species procreated.
Basically, there was a 30% chance it turned out as the father’s race and a 70% chance of being the mother’s. He didn’t even know how the chances got fucked if one of the participants was a half-breed—Reivan, in particular.
That meant that to satisfy his mother and uncle, Reivan was better off focusing on coupling with other warbeasts. Since the exact chances weren’t public knowledge, his mother and uncle were obviously quite ecstatic about it, amending the plans. It would have been rude to cancel all the arrangements he’d made with all the human concubine candidates though, so they kept those around anyway—more kids wouldn't hurt.
The only problem was explaining away how he knew such information. But he managed to cobble together enough bullshit to make them shrug it off.
In any case, there would likely be more warbeast concubine candidates than human ones. They would obviously be taken from the Terracatta Clan, which was the clan that Mimi and Jiji came from. It felt a bit strange, coupling people who may or may not be related to his adopted sisters. But so be it.
And besides, maybe there wouldn’t be many warbeast women volunteering. He was quite sure his mother wouldn’t go as far as to threaten them or anything like that. Being recent additions to the kingdom, the Terracatta Clan didn’t think that highly of the royal family when compared to the populace.
Surely, there would be less of a reaction than the long conga line of women Reivan was trying to forget about. He’d already sent word to inform them all that he was no longer looking, but they persisted for some reason. As if he was just testing their willpower or something. Did they think he'd show up any time now and say it was all a prank?
“Agh, my fucking head…” Reivan massaged the bridge of his nose as he wondered how to disperse the line without resorting to drastic measures or showing himself.
After all, it wasn’t as if these girls were being disruptive or mean. He couldn’t just call the Peacekeepers to shepherd them away if they really wanted to wait outside the palace.
“Hey,” Hector draped his arm over Reivan’s shoulders. “At least you have me around.”
To that, Reivan could only roll his eyes.
“Lucky me.”
Comments
Lire
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The3rd
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mechanizedbush
Tftc! "Then thirty percent of it was either damaged" -> "Then thirty percent of it was damaged"? or missing another phrase "to be your concubine too" -> "to be your concubines too"? "coupling people" -> "coupling with people"? minor, it's an uncommon phrase but I think "coupling with" fits better here
Wintrybull
TFTC! "Hesitantly, Mira looked around the royal archives. There was so much knowledge stored in just **t**his massive hall, ready to be absorbed. And she so wanted to do just that."
