The next morning, I began preparing for the next leg of our journey early on. This was going to be a long and difficult trip to reach Dongeng, but it was a trip we had to take. In general, other than the celestials, the country of the fairies was the farthest removed from the devils and the subsequent wars. Based on what I had read, it seemed like the fairies had a bit of a superiority complex when it came to the other species. They looked down on the elves, the beastkin, and the dwarves. After all, these species stemmed from faery and human unions. This didn’t mean they typically had a better attitude toward humans.

  Although in this world, Fairy and Faery were interchangeable, since they could also be known as fae, faery seemed like a more suitable name. Faeries, by very nature, were supernaturally beautiful. They didn’t have wings like humans, but their hair and eyes could be a variety of colors. They also had longer fangs, giving them a slightly vampiric look to them. Allegedly, they could drink blood, so calling them a vampire wouldn’t be inaccurate.

  The previous night, we had spent the majority of our remaining coin at the outpost acquiring all the resources we’d need for the hard journey ahead. Hopefully, Captain Moar hadn’t spent too much time st night drinking with the coin mother had given him. If I had things my way, Captain Moar would be waiting in front of the inn with all the supplies packed and ready, so we could just get moving and not have to fetch something important. I had created a list to give him, but I would never put all of my faith in another person. At the very least, I’d need to check through everything before we went. It would be pitiable if a prince died in a desert because he didn’t bother to check after his subordinates.

  As I came into the commons room, the innkeeper shot me a side look. I could hear a commotion outside, and it instantly left my hackles up. There was no way that the elves would have chased us this far, right? It had been over a week since I had gotten any hint of them. We were no longer in the elvish territory. They had no jurisdiction here. Yes, the majority of the residents were still elves, but they were a rougher, darker-skinned breed more suited to the heat and ck of forest. Either way, the army didn’t come out this far and the nd might as well be called wless.

  That didn’t mean a well-armed group of elves couldn’t come out here and force a fugitive to return, but I didn’t expect them to catch us here. Frowning, I checked my sword, knives, and various other tricks prepared should I ever need to escape a tricky situation. It was always best to move prepared. Then, I stepped outside of the inn. The bzing sun and light beat down, instantly blinding me. I lifted my hood and squinted to try to make out what the commotion was.

  Captain Moar had done what I asked, and he was waiting out in front with a group of camels packed with supplies. However, there was a group of soldiers around him. These were not the soldiers from the elvish nation, but from their appearance, they were faeries. They also had their weapons drawn in a threatening manner. The person taking the lead was Ba, who had her weapon out as well. At this point, she was no longer hiding her gender, although she didn’t dress up like her older sister.

  Other than my mother who was always a te sleeper, and Aeryn who was still cleaning up the room, everyone else was already outside. As I stepped into the light, all of the eyes, and some of the weapons, shifted to me. This was a pretty rough town, so when a crowd of armed people formed, most people made scarce and hid inside. It was no wonder the innkeeper had given me such a look, although I would have preferred a warning.

  “What is the meaning of this?” I demanded, my eyes narrowing as I looked over the group, dispying no signs of weakness.

  Whenever I encountered a potential enemy, it was best to not show them any subservience. It was better to confuse them and make them feel like they were in the wrong. Given my disadvantageous situation, I had to take any advantage I could get. Although, if I was being honest, I would take every advantage even if I had the upper hand. It was just the kind of man that I was.

  I already suspected I knew why they were there. They were there to keep us from entering Dongeng. They must have heard we were coming ahead of time and made preparations to block us. They would have predicted that we would go this way and sent an armed group. Was this Theo who had realized we’d be following him and acted accordingly? That guy was seriously starting to piss me off. I would make sure he died the next time we met, regardless of the circumstance.

  If Theo died, that would be the st prince of the Peri. Wouldn’t that make Saria the next in line? Rather, since female elves weren’t able to become leaders for some reason, wouldn’t it make her husband the next in line? Since I had hastily married Saria, it wasn’t lost on me that this would make me the king of Peri. However, seeing as I killed several of the princes and kidnapped the princess, I’m sure the elves wouldn’t just bend over and accept me.

  The elves would probably kill me the second I showed my face. In their minds, I likely was controlling the princesses, and there was no excuse for killing the princes. Ayda was my only ally on the elf side, and I didn’t know how far I could take it. I imagined that rather than becoming the king of Peri, I had created a fissure between Peri and Pria for years to come. When I succeeded in becoming the king of the human realm, there was no saying how long it would take to soothe the tensions. I’d need to take advantage of both princesses to do so, but it was entirely based on who took power after the vacuum we had created.

  As I watched the men suspiciously while acting like I was absolved of all fault, the guards had only been looking at me silently. They split apart just as a person moved up from between them. They were simirly cloaked liked me, except where my robes were brown, theirs were white. I could see they were a woman, even through the robes. This woman had an extremely voluptuous body, and even the hanging robes were insufficient to hide them from the world.

  She reached up, and lowered back her hood, revealing an extremely beautiful woman with grey hair and rounded ears like one might see on a koa. I did recognize this face from a certain painting. This would be my oldest sister, Lucil. Seeing her here all of a sudden didn’t fill me with hope, nostalgia, or a feeling of success. Rather, I only grew increasingly wary. It might have been my desire to eventually capture Lucil, but her appearance here wasn’t factored into my pns.

  “Hello, Brother.” She spoke up pinly.

  Pretending I didn’t understand the situation would be useless now, so I simirly lowered my hood down. I didn’t like the light, but I could force myself to tolerate it if needed.

  “Why have you come here?” I asked.

  “Perhaps we should go inside and sit down.” She offered.

  I gave a slow nod. Perhaps we should. I turned to enter the inn and was surprised to see that she moved forward to join me. She was leaving the perimeter of safety her guards afforded her and was entering the inn where I could prepare any manner of a trap. There was no way that my sister trusted me, so this caught me off guard. I wasn’t the only one. Her guards jerked as they saw her walking away from them, but she held up her hand, and the group stood fast.

  I returned to the common room. No one else dared leave their room with a group of armed people outside, so the room was empty. I found a comfortable seat and waved to the innkeeper. They were frowning, but they still went to fetch something to refresh us.

  We had used spells to decrease the temperature of the inn to something bearable, but the common room didn’t have the blessings of a grand mage, so the room was extremely hot, matching with the heat outside but with the stuffiness of indoors. I immediately started sweating, so I was eager as the innkeeper appeared, pouring something they had chilled from their celr underground. They poured Lucil a drink as well, but she didn’t lift the drink. She didn’t seem to be sweating at all. She must have had some way to prevent herself from feeling that.

  Of all the species, the faeries had progressed the farthest with magic. In this world, magic wasn’t necessarily a static thing. It grew and evolved, and new ways to use it were discovered all of the time. Humans were perhaps the most exploratory when it came to using magic since they were able to use all types with somewhat equal ability. However, when it came between humans and faeries, while humans were more versatile, faeries were much stronger. If a battle erupted between the two countries, it’d be hard-pressed to decide who would win. Well, that was before I appeared and caused such a riff to grow within the human realm.

  The point being, Lucil had a chance to learn from the Faery, and thus likely had access to a lot of magic that I did not. I noticed that the grand magus didn’t sweat either. I would have to ask her about that ter.

  At that moment, I focused on Lucil. We were retively alone for this talk. Her men had stayed outside, and mine remained at the door providing a defensive shield. I had thought Baba and Saria would join us, but Baba had an expression of disinterest, and Saria, while looking tempted, had decided to remain outside.

  While we had waited for our drinks, I had worked out several pns in my head, but they would all depend on Lucil and how she reacted. None of my sisters had any reasons to care about me from before. While Lucy and Olivia had warmed up to me slightly, that involved time and effort. Lucil didn’t know me and had no reason to think about me favorably. She was the oldest, so she would have been the most aware of the consequences of my birth, and what it did to her family. On the one hand, she’d have the most reason to understand I wasn’t at fault. On the other hand, she had the most to lose and a reason to be bitter about it.

  After thinking about all of this, and taking a sip from a cool drink to rex me just a bit, I finally started the conversation. “Why are you here?”

  I was being extremely blunt, but I figured that was the best option given the circumstances. Lucil came out to me personally. There are many ways she could have handled this with subversion, but since she decided to be direct, I answered in kind.

  “You’ve come to the country of Dongeng,” Lucil spoke up. “You’re not welcome here. I’ve come to ask you to leave.”

  Blunt truly was the right word. Lucil didn’t sugarcoat her words even a bit. I put on a smile.

  “I can’t do that.”

  Lucil nodded. “You are worried about sister Olivia. This is unnecessary. She is safe.”

  My smile stretched slightly. “Safe with that bastard Gantar.”

  “Gantar is dead.”

  My smile flickered slightly. “What do you mean, dead?”

  “Mother killed him.” She responded simply.

  I felt my sweat turn cold for a second. I had never met the woman that Lucil was talking about, but I knew my mother who was based on this woman. She might hate me to death, but I still imagined that overyed with the kind and loving woman that I knew. She was a bit crazy, but I didn’t see my mother as a murderer.

  “Do you mean… she ordered his death?” I asked, trying to reconcile my image of this woman.

  “No, she reached into his chest, and ripped out his heart,” Lucil expined. “Gantar had offended Mother. He had brought little sister Olivia before her, ciming falsehoods that they were together. In her rage, she destroyed him.”

  “And you’re saying that Olivia is safe?” I snapped in a growl.

  “Mother will not harm one of her daughters.” Lucil decred, but I dedicated a hesitation in her voice.

  “Just me then.” I grimaced.

  “Mother, she…” Her eyes widened, and she let out a gasp, her hand moving to her mouth.

  I looked over my shoulder where she was gncing. My mother had walked down the stairway. She had recently cleaned up and looked refresh, with slightly damp hair and a beautiful smile. When she saw me, her smile turned radiant.

  I looked back at Lucil, whose face had turned white for a moment. Her body was extremely tense. This left me feeling a bit flummoxed. When it came to either Lucy or Olivia, they hadn’t cared about Mother much at all. They had mostly ignored her like she was just an object or a servant. If they ever looked at her, there was no emotion there. On the other hand, Lucil who had spent the most time with her real mother looked at my mother completely differently.

  She stood up in her pce. “Mother…”

  Her voice held a strange degree of respect, which caused my mother to wear a strange expression on her face. “Hello, daughter.”

  She walked up to us and then sat next to me, her arm immediately looping around my arm. She was clingy as always. She was particurly clingy around my sisters. She seemed to accept that Saria was my wife. She was even tolerant of Aeryn and Ba now. However, she never was accepting of Lucy or Olivia. In her mind, they were invaders threatening to take her beloved. I patted the back of mom’s hand and she smiled, leaning her head against me lovingly. As Olivia watched this, she managed to calm down. After a moment, she sat back, looking at the pair of us awkwardly.

  “H-how have you been?” She asked Mother, not me.

  “Hmmm? My David has been dragging me all around. It’s been exhausting. However, he says it’s to help save the kingdom. Isn’t he wonderful?”

  Tears seemed to be forming in Lucil’s eyes, and I could feel a sadness coming from her.

  “You know that she’s a doppelganger, right?”

  Lucil’s eyes snapped away, and after a moment she spoke quietly. “I know.”

  The direct and smooth conversation we had been having previously had seemingly been killed by the presence of Mother. Her expression had turned sullen and she became extremely quiet. I realized that if I didn’t take the lead, this conversation would go nowhere fast, and I was far too hot to waste time. Mother was starting to sweat two, and her fragrant scent was being released as she pressed against me. After st night, I didn’t want to start having bad thoughts again.

  “Lucil, I understand mother hates me and wants nothing to do with me. I understand the faeries hate and despise the devils, whom I resemble. I wouldn’t be here unless I didn’t feel I had to be here. I’ve come for two reasons. The first is to recim my sister, Olivia. The second-”

  “-is to take me.” Lucil finished.

  My words caught in my throat. This was true, but it was far too direct!

  “Lucil, there is another reason Olivia can’t stay.”

  “The baby, your baby.”

  Once again, she caught me off guard. They really knew everything?

  “We cannot release Olivia. Mother knows that the baby is yours.”

  Those words caused my body to tense. My other mother felt this, and so she squeezed my arm in what was supposed to be reassurance.

  “Will she… abort?”

  Lucil shook her head. “Quite the opposite. She has unfurled the magic, allowing the baby to be born.”

  This time, I nearly stood up. “What?”

  “Was that your intention with all of us? Put a baby in us, and force us to be your sves?” She asked, a fsh of anger on her face. “Do you have any idea where that leads?”

  I frowned. “I don’t abuse them. This is just a precaution…”

  “A precaution.” She snorted. “While your seed is inside them, they will be your sves, but once the baby is born, they will be ensved to the baby. It will destroy them. It will destroy their minds.”

  “I’ll never activate the seed.” I defended

  “You may not have a choice.” She sniffed. “In the case of Olivia, you don’t.”

  Realization over what she said finally came crashing home. If Olivia had that baby, she would no longer be bound to me. She would be bound to the child. At some point during the birthing process, the ensved become loyal to their child, not the daddy.

  “They become like zombies, imagine this woman, but times it by a thousand, a million!” Lucil snapped. “That’s what you’ve done to our sisters.”

  “Mother… she could abort.”

  “She’s using Olivia as an experiment,” Lucil responded. “She thinks she figured out a way the baby can be born without facing the full level of imprinting, and she’s going to test it on Olivia.”

  “That’s what you’re decring as safe?” I snapped.

  “Would you rather see your children aborted?” Lucil asked instead.

  I opened my mouth and then closed it again. This was a problem I didn’t intend to worry about. With the help of the grand magus, I figured there would be some pn I would come up with. If Olivia’s pregnancy was ignited though, then the safest pce for her might be there. What about the child, though? Would mother’s hatred carry through?

  “You don’t need to worry about us.” Lucil decred. “I’m already well aware of what you want. You want power. In that case, take it and leave.”

  She dropped two notes directly down on the table before pulling back, that angry expression still on her face. I reached out and took the two letters. I could see they were each sealed by a princess. One was Lucil’s seal, and the other was Olivia’s seal.

  “This is?”

  “What you want.” She frowned. “It’s the decration that we relinquish our nd to you. I’ve simirly already sent this by courier back to father. Did you receive simir from Lucy?”

  I looked down at the two letters in my hand, nodding slightly. Lucy had written such a letter before heading to Benatong. She believed that doing this would prevent the king from using her, should things go south.

  “Then, congratutions.” Lucille crossed her arms. “You’ve won the kingdom.”

  “That…”

  “You have 2/3rds of the inheritance now. Even if both of our remaining sisters moved to stop you, they would be at a severe disadvantage and only cause trouble. All you need to do is return home, send them a letter decring your intent and position, and from what I know of our sisters, they will relinquish their position as well. There is no reason to continue, the country is yours.”

  AnnouncementHey Readers! I have recently done a redesign and overhaul on my website. You may prefer reading there now. At the least, check it out, and consider becoming a member. This was all done with the help of my Spanish transtor, Kokoadict. He posts many transtions, among them my work at https://gao-nn.com/. You can support him at https:///GAONN. Either way, check out my site, https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ and become a member if you're interested. Have a great day.

  If you're like to read: https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ensved/ The rest of the volume is here.