- Ligera Province, Capital Building, Nearly a Year Later - Rose's POV -
Nearly a year had passed since my Celebration of Birth, I had since reconciled with that Manchen bra- Minerva, although as you can see it was still a bit strained. Apparently, after a near death experience, on top of intensive brainwa- training, she’d turned over a new leaf. Humbled by her choices and the consequences of them, she’d even started to defer to her more timid cousin. An outcome that made the shy Alice even more so as she actively avoided the other girl. Over the last few months I’d been forced to step in between them several times and, while it was a bit annoying, it truly did seem like the young first year was attempting to patch things up between them. Hopefully she’d learn to be a bit less forceful, but it at least felt like a genuine attempt. According to what I’d been told by Auntie, the young Manchen heir had confessed that she’d always been jealous of Alice and bullied her as a result. Because of the humiliation of her defeat, she’d gone full circle to almost worshipping her instead.
Malaise and Karen had gotten informal recognition from the Gnomes in the last year as well. I’d continued to go to the Gnomish Delegation for “tests” periodically and, while I’d initially only gone with Karen in tow, Malaise had eventually joined us after we’d mentioned it and, over the course of several months she’d impressed the Gnomes enough for them to invite her to their own Academy after she finished her schooling here. Karen was offered the same opportunity but, instead of leaving it as a decision for later as Malaise had done, she’d turned it down with the understanding that she wouldn’t be leaving me. Or course they’d invited me as well but the idea of being turned into a full-time research subject wasn’t exactly appealing.
Argent had gotten permission, finally, from her parents to formally become my knight, well squire, to be fair. Well, technically she was my mother’s knight until I became of age. As someone below the age of majority, I technically didn’t have a title of any kind so I couldn’t actually have knights in my service. Even more technically, her family wasn’t a subordinate of my country so there were many other considerations to consider. But persistence had won out in the end, and she’d been given permission. So... I have a knight now...
Veronica had also changed over the last year. She was still the perverted groper/dirty talker that she always was but, she also would give insights into Royal life that we weren’t sure of, the kinds of things that only someone either in a Royal family or directly employed by them would know. Now that her secret had come out Malaise would also join in those discussions, although the teasing never stopped. Veronica, of course, loved the blush that her maid would get whenever her status was brought up and I had the feeling that there was a bit of fetish involved in some way. A safe bet when it came to our resident pervert.
Urz was the one that had changed the most of our friend group. She was dating Yeetsil. The goblin, that we had known was in love with the shortstack since we saw them interact with each other, had finally worked up the courage to confess. Of course, she’d immediately run away from the shocked boy, leaving him devastated. Luckily, she’d confided in us and, after talking through her feelings, we’d convinced her that she was just nervous rather than wanting to refuse him. The two of them were adorable bundles of nervous energy and hormones. It brought a warm smile to my face every time they entered the classroom with each other hand in hand.
Which brings me to, well... me. The last year had been a busy one. On top of my continuing etiquette and diplomatic training that I did long distance with Auntie as well as having personal tutoring which I got exemptions for from the Academy, I was also working on my mental defenses with Love in my inner world almost every night. My world, which had begun as barely a city, had since grown to encompass an entire planet and was now forming a moon and, eventually, other planets. The residents of my world had grown beyond my ability to count, although I could feel them if I concentrated, and Love had nothing but praise for the speed at which I was growing... In his own way at least.
It’d been during this time that I got a call from Papa telling me to come to Ligera, my little sister was about to be born!
[Was that a crack?!? I think that was a crack!] - Rose
[Calm down baby girl, it can sometimes take days for a hatchling to get out of her egg. Besides I didn’t hear anyth-] - Papa Robert
<CRACK!>
[See?!? I told you so!] - Rose
[Haha... that you did baby girl. How are you doing honey?] - Papa Robert
[I’m fine dear, it’s been months since I laid little Tulip. I’ve fully recovered at this point. I’m just excited to see the newest member of our family. Ah! Speaking of which...] - Momma Lily
Excitedly bouncing around as my tail caused havoc to the room’s paint with its wagging, I was barely able to stop myself from pushing Momma and Papa away so I could see. No matter how excited I was I knew that this was their accomplishment more than mine and I was aware enough to not be selfish. That being said I could raise myself up on my tail to see over them! Cheater! You might cry. But I’d say I’m using my body’s capabilities to their fullest. But enough of that I need to focus on my little sister’s egg, so I don’t miss a single moment.
<SNAP! CRACKLE! POP!>
[I-I think I see her fingers!] - Rose
[Aw, Honey... She’s doing just as good as Rose did when she was born...] - Papa Robert
[Of course she is! The women of my family are as strong as they are beautiful! Hmph!] - Momma Lily
[Shh! She’s poking her head out!] - Rose
[MA!] - Tulip
If I’d been looking at my momma’s face, I’d have seen a smug look as she bragged about her cute daughters, of which I was included along with my newest family member. Eye’s and attention on the cute face currently struggling to squeeze through the hole she’d managed to make in the tough eggshell she paused to stare at us curiously before breaking into a joyful smile and babbling. I nearly died from the cuteness.
- Ligera Province, Capital Building, Several Hours Later - Rose's POV -
It took nearly an hour for my new little sister Tulip to fully push her way out of the egg she was in, a process that was deeply filled with tradition and religious significance. During what was called “The Struggle” the baby was not to be helped, our culture believed that the act of breaking through the egg by yourself was significant to the chances of survival and, while it hadn’t been researched scientifically yet, it had a bit of merit based on barely remembered anecdotes about snakes from my past life. Something about muscles? I’d have to ask Karen about it later.
Speaking of Karen though she’d also come with me, mostly to keep me company on the trip here as well as when I returned, but she’d left our family alone since because, “It’s not right for me to butt in on a family event since I’m not a part of it... yet.” Either way she was loitering somewhere in town as the five of us cooed over the newest member of the family.
Ah right, Grandmother and Grandfather had also arrived to see little Tulip. Due to tradition they hadn’t been allowed to witness “The Struggle”, technically it was pushing things for even me to be there, but they’d quickly come in after she’d finally made her escape from her white prison.
[Look at her cute little fingies! Oh, who has cute fingies?!? You do! You do!] - Rose
[Ga! Ma ma ma ma ma! Gabu!] - Tulip
[Aww, she knows you’re her big sister. Don’t you little Tulip?] - Papa Robert
[Look momma look! She has your eyes!] - Momma Lily
[She sure does baby girl, and your face.] - Grandma Daisy
[Thank all the Gods that she doesn’t have anything from you, eh Robert?] - Grandpa Richard
[Hey?!?] - Robert
[Oh wow! I think she has Papa’s strength, look at how strong she is!] - Rose
I wasn’t kidding when I said she was strong, her grip strength was enough to actually hurt a bit. At least when I wasn’t prepared. My little sister...
Swaddled in blankets to keep warm after leaving the comfort of the egg, which I knew well was far warmer than the outside world, her little hazel eyes peered around at her family with curiosity while babbling at us. Sporting pale blue scales, she looked a bit less unique than I did but was far cuter, in my opinion, than I’d ever been. Her fine, blonde, hair framed her face well despite never being styled yet while her fair complexion brought to mind a picture perfect princess. Yes, exactly all of the things I wasn’t.
[Babu! Ga! Waaaaaaaaaah! WAAAAAAAH!] - Tulip
[Oh, are you hungry, my precious flower? Here, momma will help you.] - Momma Lily
[W-Well why don’t we leave you two alone for now? I’m sure our newest family member is exhausted from all the attention! I-Isn't that right Robert?!?] - Grandpa Richard
[Oh, hush you two, just leave and let the women deal with the scary crying baby! Shoo! Ah, Rose, can you get some warm towels for your little sister? Oh, and please let the staff know to bring in some baby clothes as well on your way back.] - Grandma Daisy
[Geh! O-Okay...] - Rose
I got caught... Trying to take advantage of the men leaving the room I tried to follow after behind them only to get called out by my grandmother. As cute as my new little sister was, I’d had enough of taking care of babies with Mary. So, I thought to escape. Unfortunately, nothing gets past the family Matriarch and now she’d gotten a promise of help. I’d already heard that this was a part of the bonding tradition as well. Apparently, in traditional Lamia culture, the male wasn’t truly a part of the family structure. In the past Lamia used to steal men from all over and they’d only be used for breeding purposes. As a result, the men were more or less sex slaves, with little to no actual rights. It took many centuries before both genders were afforded similar rights and some traditionalist factions still argued that men should be in the home where they belong and not out as working members of society. A strange, albeit understandable, parallel to Earth. Only the last few hundred years had Men been allowed to hold noble titles and until the last few decades they’d been honorary more than functional with little actual power. Apparently the first male heir to ever inherit a title as firstborn wasn’t until about 30 years ago as, before that, women were the only ones covered with inheritance. Also somewhat understandable, considering how rare it was for Lamia to have male children. I’d been told it was one of the largest reasons, outside of just personal preference, that I was chosen for engagement to Prince Arlen. They’d been banking on my Ducal heritage to give him legitimacy with the more hardline factions within the nobles. Of course, this theft of breeding partners applied to women too, owing to the naturally high amount of lesbian and bisexual individuals, but they were afforded more rights than the men were for most of our history, so it was generally less forceful, and many of the more repressed civilizations would have a long string of women with such preferences immigrating to the Empire. I’d been told that their open door policy to such women had led to rampant spying and sabotage but they’d never changed the policy since it had been tradition as far back as our civilization could remember.
Which led me back to the traditional childcare that was still mostly put upon the women of society. Ironically for different reasons than back on Earth but same outcome regardless.
[Pfft! Looks like you couldn’t escape.] - Grandpa Richard
[Do you want me to tell on you to Grandma?] - Rose
[I deeply apologize for my rudeness.] - Grandpa Richard
[Ha! Gets her fire from her mother she does!] - Papa Robert
[Same question to you.] - Rose
[I deeply apologize for my rudeness.] - Papa Robert
Grumbling to myself about having to deal with this, I distracted myself from the less glamorous parts of baby’s by thinking about how cute my new little sister was. It worked.
- Purity, Holy Empire of Fos Capital City – Pope Francis X's POV -
Fools! All of them, fools! On top of not being able to eliminate the loose string of that damnable former hero they hadn’t even been able to infiltrate the prison where they were holding those damned assassins! I knew we shouldn’t have trusted outsiders to deal with our loose ends. Cardinal David had once more overreached his station and, of his own initiative, antagonized one of our most dangerous adversaries. Those two old-timers, while on their way out, were still massive threats that we couldn’t deal with without a large number of resources. Even worse, I’d been told that the asset had been showing signs of resistance to the brainwashing process. According to that damnable Cardinal David, our source for the technology, had assured us that the device would be permanent after a few years of use yet that damned weapon had been increasingly independent recently according to its handler, General Mercy.
A fine man. A shame he was of low birth, otherwise he would have been a good replacement for that fat fool of a Cardinal. Unfortunately, I’d not yet been able to replace him entirely. The one I was looking at, Cardinal Maria, had taken over many of his duties but his power base had fought back with surprising aggression. It seemed like it was more important than ever to remove him from his position, he was far too powerful to leave alone and, as foolish as he was, it would be a disaster if he gained even more influence. Luckily the righteousness of my cause had aligned the universe in my favor and the fool kept making extremely visible mistakes, ones that served me in dismantling his power base. Only a little while before I could eliminate him completely.
[Give me an update on our prisoner, has he started talking yet Cardinal Maria?] - Pope Francis X
[U-Unfortuna-] - Cardinal David
[Did I ask you Cardinal David?!?] - Pope Francis X
[I-I apologize Your Holiness, I spoke out of line.] - Cardinal David
[Yes, you did. Getting back to the matter at hand. Cardinal Maria?] - Pope Francis X
[We’ve made some progress Your Holiness, using illusions we’ve convinced him that he was rescued from our prisons. We’re still waiting for favorable results but we’re positive that we’ll see some soon!] - Cardinal Maria
[Humu... And this illusion will work against him? Wasn’t he the former Court Mage of the Heretic? Won’t he sense something is wrong?] - Pope Francis X
[We’re confident that we’ve succeeded in fooling his magical senses Your Holiness. We’ve fooled him into thinking he’s being interrogated by his former Queen’s men. Because of his betrayal this seemed the most promising scenario to get him to crack.] - Cardinal Maria
[Hmm... Fantastic work Cardinal Maria, you’re a credit to your station. I shall watch your progress with great interest, look forward to more assignments coming your way in the future.] - Pope Francis X
[Yes, Your Holiness.] - Cardinal Maria
The look of desperation on that fat bastard’s face was like aged fine wine, he’d annoyed me for the last time and soon, soon, I would be rid of him.
