"—tell you what I think. I think it was...sabotage."

"It's always sabotage with you. You'd be a [Spy] if you weren't such a cow."

"Oh, please. You'd pass for a cow yourself, if you weren't such a bitch. It makes sense, don't it? Those humans are always instigating something. They never stop—oh. Let's ask her about it."

All heads turned to Maple, standing at the doorway of the rec room. She gulped and smiled dumbly at the group of ladies. There were at least half a dozen, most of them cow beastkin, but notably, one of them had dog ears and a tail.

It was pretty obvious this was the group they were looking for. Betty was there too, thankfully, and intervened.

"Oh, Maple and Emma! They're the ones I was telling you all about. Maple's starting a new dairy for us, so be nice Glenda. How's it all coming along, dear?"

Maple opened her mouth to answer, taken well off guard, but Glenda spoke first.

"I am being nice. I just want to hear if she thinks the humans are behind the ballista incident this morning. Are you from the kingdoms, girly?"

"Um, no—"

The dog-woman interrupted Maple, scowling at Glenda.

"Oh, leave the poor girl alone. How would you like it if everyone you met asked if you were from the pastures?"

"Bah. I've never heard of any bovinian [Saboteurs]. Have you?"

Maple blinked as their cattiness continued. The whole room had something to say about it or someone to chastise. And one of them had heard rumors about one such group of [Saboteurs].

The Bovine Bombers.

Then they had even more to say on the veracity of that. Emma turned to Maple and raised an eyebrow, and Maple quietly chuckled with her. Eventually, Betty managed to shush everyone, and Maple finally got her chance to speak. She decided to address the allegations first.

"We were there this morning when it happened, it just looked like—"

"Aha, [Saboteur]!"

Maple glared at Glenda while everyone hushed her again.

"It looked like it jammed or something, I don't know. Anyway, I'm not from any of the human cities. I'm hardly human myself, so..."

She hadn't meant to say that, but it was true. And distancing herself from this continent's humans couldn't be a bad thing. Soon it'd be clear she wasn't entirely human, so she may as well get used to it.

The ladies murmured at that, but Maple continued before they could get going again, or ask what she was exactly.

"Anyway. We have a breast pump now, so I thought I'd drop it off here if that'd make it easier for you all in the meantime—"

"Yes, yes, hand it over. My girls are killing me. Do we have a bucket? Bucket, someone—"

Emma handed the breast pump to Maple, and Maple handed it to Betty. The group looked at risk of fighting over it, but there was a pecking order. Not that it prevented bickering; one of the other ladies complained.

"Of course Betty gets to go first."

"Mhm. Remind yourselves who convinced Maple here to start a dairy in the first place. How is that going, by the way? Have you found a building yet, or should we keep bothering Mirkham at his home?"

That wasn't exactly how Maple remembered it going, but she'd seen firsthand how pointless it would be to argue.

"Um, not yet. I'm working on it."

"Not too much longer, I hope. And I don't suppose you know when you can start paying us?"

Maple grimaced. She had so much to do, and most of it began with registering a business and making the loan from Charlotte official; something she was still hesitant to do and needed to read up on. The pump right now was mostly to relieve their soreness; the milk must flow.

"I'm not sure yet. I need to get a loan, and everything..."

"Oh, a loan? Is that very wise? You don't need to worry about paying us for a while, I was just asking. We put together a little fund to make sure we're all taken care of."

"Yeah, it'll be fine for me I think. I'd rather not have to, but she's more like...an investor. What kind of fund?"

"We pooled our gold, around two dozen of us. Some weren't doing too great even before SuQ shut down, so you've gotta look out for your own, you know? It's all tracked and accounted for, everyone will be repaid in the end—argh, does no one have a bucket? A jar? I'll go ask Birdy—"

Betty looked around impatiently, and Emma waved her arms in the air to get everyone's attention. Ladies, please, was how Maple imagined it. Then Emma grinned and slapped her belly, and made several more gestures.

"Your what now, dear? I have a stomach tonic, if that's what you need."

One of the bovinian beastkin dug through her bag.

Emma shook her head rapidly, then turned to Maple and snapped her fingers a few times. Interpret for me, woman. Please. She was being pushy, but with a desperate expression on her face. It was kind of adorable.

"I think she's offering to store the milk inside of herself with her Skill."

"Oh, she can do that?"

Betty's eyes widened with optimistic skepticism, and Emma nodded casually.

"Yeah. The Skill preserves it too I think. Buuuut, fifty-fifty the hungry baby just drinks—hahaha stph, stoph, I'm kiddingfh."

Emma covered Maple's mouth with a gooey hand. She removed it and shook her fist at Maple. Don't ruin this for me. She was half-joking, but Maple knew she'd be in the doghouse for real if she actually messed this up for her.

"It's her specialty. We can take it to Mirkham together after."

"Well, if you say so. I can't wait any longer."

Betty practically whopped out her breasts, and Maple politely looked away. Emma inserted the tube from the pump directly into her stomach, and Betty—Betty got to pumping. She let out a huge sigh as the pressure was relieved.

"That's the stuff. Wonderful. It's a shame you've only got the one. We'll be here all day if everyone's using it. Someone go tell the others to come line up now if they want in. Regina's been yapping her tits off over how sore they are."

Emma nodded, they would be there all day, unless...She got everyone's attention again by waving her arms. This was where Maple first spotted the slight deviousness written under her expression. She was scheming! All along, scheming.

She wrote carefully now—lest she lose it all to a mistranslation, or lie, from her human. Her face was calculatedly impassive, as if offering a favor offhand.

I could provide direct suction, if anyone was willing. Would go faster.

She demonstrated on herself, using a hand to provide exaggerated suction on her nippleless breast. If Maple had any inkling the women would find the suggestion inappropriate—she'd have forgotten what SuQ Dairy had been. Betty just shrugged.

"If you really think you can do it, sweetie."

She offered up her other breast and Emma's face flickered with momentary delight. She made her face neutral again before taking the nipple in with utmost professionalism. Betty sighed again as Emma started sucking.

"That's even better than the pump. Here. How many can you do at a time?"

Betty removed the suction cup from her nipple, opting for the superior slime suction on both nipples. To answer her question, Emma held up...all of her fingers, plus extra. The other gals did not form a queue—they swarmed Emma, more than one dropping their heavy breasts onto her.

The tiddies were let loose, and they surrounded Emma, swarmed her. She was delighted, of course, and stretched herself thin trying to suck on them all. Tiddies full of milk. What more could a gluttonous cutie want?

Maple chuckled. No wonder her she'd been so willing to come. Good for her. It looked kind of fun, really. But without any milk, it'd be weird to join in.

But things were getting heated. All of them let some sound escape, while a few were louder about their enjoyment and got chastised for it.

"Settle down you [Harlots]. You're making it weird for the poor slime."

"Weird for her? Look at her."

Shameless ecstasy covered Emma's face. She was already growing in size from the milk pouring in.

"She's enjoying herself. And none of you can claim to hate it either."

They all knew each other from SuQ Dairy, and what they'd each gotten up to there. More ladies showed up, and then they did have to form a queue, simply because there wasn't enough room around Emma. She could handle...six at a time if she stretched herself, and if none of them were too well-endowed.

With all the extra foot-traffic, a waitress soon came by to check on things. Maple tensed, but her lips quirked into a smile as a black leather tail swished through the air behind her. A succubus wasn't going to complain about this situation.

"Can I get anyone anything?"

Several of the ladies placed orders for food and drink, talking over each other all the while. Maple was thinking of getting a snack when she spotted Birdy standing in the doorway. He might have an issue with the situation. He met Maple's eyes after a few seconds and seemed to snap out of a daze.

"Well that's one slime who won't be needing any drinks. You ladies enjoy yourselves."

His face held a professional smile as he palmed the door frame and quickly left. After a few steps, he did a 180 and came back to shut the door.

Maple untensed a little. Was that permission? Tolerance? None of them were being that loud about it, though Emma had even slipped into a few pants already. Still, Maple didn't want him to think they were turning his inn into something lewd, or that she was to blame for it. She followed him out.

"Sorry we kinda turned your rec room into a dairy, haha."

"Not at all. Business is business, and if it's just for today, or a few days...I take it you do plan on starting a dairy, then? Betty had mentioned some human was going to, but uh...rumors, you know?"

Maple got it. She wouldn't take anything that group said at face value after having spent some time with them.

"Yeah, trying to I guess. We'll see how it goes."

"Well, I could use a milk supplier once you get rolling. Cheese too, if you were planning to do that?"

Were they? Mirkham did make cheese, but how long would that take to get going?

"Maybe? I'm not too sure yet, to be honest. I have a, uh, guy for that, but I don't even have a building yet, or a business registered, or—Milk we'll definitely do."

Maple stopped herself from spiraling into the details. Birdy nodded. She'd followed him all the way to the kitchen.

"This is a fairly new venture of mine too, if you couldn't tell. There's more to running everything yourself than you'd expect, but you'll learn as you go. Anyway, let me know once you've got some milk to sell. I know you've gotta process it, and all that."

Maple left him to his work, and returned to the—well, it was a miniature orgy room by that point, with tables and chairs moved to make space around the main attraction. If this world had [Health Inspectors]...

Emma kept everything sanitary anyway.

The room had all the free prana floating around one might expect, and Maple was beginning to sense it physically; like being submerged in a warm bath. It was pleasant. She absorbed only a modest amount, both to avoid getting too horned up herself, but also to avoid arousing the suspicion of that succubus waitress.