Aki knew people were trying to distract him of his worries, he wasn't dense. He was quite grateful for the distractions though.
He'd gotten quite shaken after doing some modifications on Mari's pregnancy, halving the eight months of pregnancy of her species through several small alterations on the water of the womb and umbilical cord. It'd not be possible if the fetus couldn't grow at such rate, but it apparently could, because the surgeon/father spent three hours testing the mathematics and chemical balance of such reactions, finally reaching the best outcome without hurting his wife.
The kid could've been grown and birthed there and then actually, though it'd be a cesarean and Mari would pass out from the blood and nutrient loss even with the ridiculous doctor at ready, probably needing a period of intense recovery because of the healing strain.
Everyone had spent some time soothing the woman in question, who'd always been scared of having children because of more common reasons.
It all happened before he went to hell to gather more Influence, but by the time Aki got up again, his new demon agents had already started taking to their work.
He didn't have the time to obtain the help of a company of devils, so sucubi were the best alternative since he couldn't just let hundreds of eye sacks float around, faceless voids try and eat the minds of those around them, hell goblins corrupt those he already had around... There weren't exactly a lot of subtle options.
Vera was likely birthing new demons right now too, stronger individuals to command their siblings without his continuous surveillance.
That, ironically enough, didn't actually involve sex.
"Are you thinking of another woman?" Asked Mari, fake pouting as she snuggled closer to his side.
"Yeah, remember that succubus I'm working with? I'm wondering what she's going to send as a leader of those demons we've got." He said, turning on his side to directly face her, his face serious as he brought her closer by the waist. "Did you do something to your skin?" He asked, raising a brown.
"Are you kidding? It's oily." She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Did you have too hard a time complimenting this bomb of hormones you made?"
"Not really. It's just rare for any of you guys to look like a normal woman." He commented, starting to play with her hair and passing his leg over her, their faces coming closer. "It feels kind of weird."
"You're weird." She complained, closing her eyes as they rested their foreheads against each other.
"I'm your weirdo. Forever." He rebuted, his breathing easing again. After a bit, the Cat-kin was forced to admit that despite neither of them being sleepy anymore, just cuddling for a while seemed like a great idea.
*****
"You know, now that I'm more powerful than basically everything around and don't just change jobs all the time, it's like my life changed literally gender, from an action novel to drama and slice of life, you know what I mean?" Asked Aki, ranting to his daughters as they followed him through the research department of the royal academy, both nodding as he talked while passing each check in, leading them deeper into sections almost no one had access to.
"So, back to the point, we're going to do a bit of research and none of your moms can know about it. I will be in Alchemy section, but you girls can read any books you want. There's anything from the diaries of long dead royals to spells able to hurt gods, so ask me anything you want to know. Yes sweety?" He proclaimed as they reached the last door.
"Dad, should we really be here? Also, are there any history books?" Asked Clair.
"There's plenty of those right there, on the session of forbidden children and war tales, but no, not even I have permission to be here. We could torch the place to the ground and no one would know for months though, the last registry of someone opening that door was fifteen years ago, and I can just walk through these defense enchantments really." He shrugged, smiling a bit a he tousled the little girl's hair. "Now why don't you go find mentions of your big sister in those books." He suggested, the little girl grinning as she ran to do exactly that, laughing as said sister pretended to try and catch her.
The ancient tomb of knowledge was quite the beatiful place, one of the few truly mystical visages Aki had seen and would just stare at for long periods of time if given the chance.
Long lines of organized bookshelves made of black polished wood held collections with well preserved manuscripts with hard covers, beautifull colors and designs, small blue crystals perfectly framing key locations with simetry so as to iluminate the whole place while the ceiling held whole clusters of said crystals, the walls looking like they were sculped in the bedrock of the place, the reading tables had were an umblemished marble with delightfull carvings of fluid forms and held their own illumination...
Yet the section he made a beeline for was charred black, not a speck of dust remaining to show for whatever had been there.
"I see that i wasn't the first to have these thought. I can only wonder if it was the king of now or some other person that burned away such information. Nothing i can actually do about it without actually alerting several someones though, so i guess i will just have some fun with my daughters before going away." Slowly shaking his head, he could only resign himself to finding things out through experimentation.
*****
"I mean, they are all busy, and i'm not letting Clair near your family, no offense." Aki pointed out as they walked closer to the orc stronghold.
"I know, just please don't kill anyone." Sighed Sera, taking out a small horn out of storage and blowing it with some of her strenght, which easily translated to something that'd be able to break some eardrums. Some five minutes later, the first horn answered her call, clearly even stronger the hers, and was quickly followed by several more with different force.
It was to this great earfuck that they approached the gates of the orc citadel, a very tall orc jumping off the ten meters tall gate to meet them, as her roar and bear hug suggested.
{Our little rabbit is back!} She exclaimed, similar roars comming from the gates where several armored men could be seen. The husband couldn't help but smirk at the cute nickname.
{Aunty! Could you not call me like that, I'm an adult now dammit!} Retorted Sera, blushing a bit as she avoided the gaze of the surprised woman.
{She can talk back! Your journey was truly succeful then.} Concluded the woman as she put down her charge and slapped her back.
{I'd not come back if it'd not been. Did you guys get my letters?} Asked the more composed she-orc.
{You really shouldn't have bothered to pay for such expensive magic delivery, but yes, they were teleported right to your mother's office. I missed you Serali.} Wrily answered the guard captain, before sighing and giving her daughter a quick hug. {Everyone did. You have to tell your stories, we will have a big banquet to celebrate, this very night and it will go down on the clan's history!} She smiled while guiding the woman to the gates.
{Aunty, wait.} She firmed her feet to the ground, startling the woman with the difficulty in moving her.
{Whate, is it about this guy? Is he giving you a hard time? Want me to beat him up?} She asked in all seriousness, Aki starting to laugh while holding his stomach under her stern gaze. {What's so funny boy?!} She threatened.
Sera was starting to blush again, getting in front of her aunt and not looking at her husband showing off his right wrist.
The bigger woman was silenced, looking dumbfounded at the two tusk marks on the human's arm and then starting to switch her gaze between her daughter's mouth and the scarred tissue.
{Nice to meet you, I am Aki Augustus Sunstride, Sera's husband and the leader of her adventurer party.} He introduced himself in elvish, the language they were speaking, offering a handshake which the woman took by reflex.
{Are you a werewolf or something? I'm pretty sure our Serali would have already broken a normal human.} She questioned, getting some more laughter out of him.
{If you must know, I quite enjoy my wife's attention, but no, I am not a werewolf. It'd be easier to explain it all at once, so maybe you'd like to have the whole family listening?} He suggested.
{Definetly.} Declared the wife in question, still a bit unsure what her father would think of the situation at first glance.
She was certainly right about worrying though, because when the two and a half meters tall iron fortress saw her, she took off her helmet and started crying while spouting a lot of embarrassing things. Imediatly punching their maroom shin shut, Sera noticed she'd knocked her father out as she was about to mention the days when she cried for not being able to sleep with her parents again.
{I assume this would be your father.} Guessed Aki as he approached the greater orc and healed her awake, noticing that she was also what orcs called 'chosen'. And damn was it big! {Good day ma'am.} He told the grogy giantess.
{Who are you?} She asked, taking his arm in a hand, which he opened with much calm while paralyzing her with magic and showing his wrist again. This slowed her down enough for him to be standing by Sera in the time the clan leader got up again. {You married a man?} Was the first thing she asked after sitting up, and said husband just couldn't stop laughing.
Five more confused moms later.
{Ok, so just to point out some important things, the onix bracelet with silverly carving is my marriage mark. It's not useless jewelry either, i'm a master enchanter, this thing would prevent her from even suiciding by dragon.} Aki pointed out, getting several nods of approval and one specially greedy look. {I'm not her only lover, there's two wives you haven't met.} Which made her father let out a breath of relief. {And she's currently a rank eight demi with plenty of jobs.} Cue two orc woman spitting out their drinks and laughter from the only male in the room.
{I assume that was not a joke.} Stated the smallest wife, her skin tone, serious look and raven black hair suggesting she was the birth mother. {Tell us dear, have you come back to fight your father?} She asked, sadness and resignation on her voice.
{What, no!} Sera quickly corrected.
{And even if she had, i can always break a taboo or two to bring back my in-laws.} Shrugged Aki before getting an elbow to the side.
{You're not helping. We came to take the whole tribe with us.} She said after a deep breath.
{And the mountain if need be} Complemented her husband.
{We have a territory in civilized parts, it's full of monster species and at least a tenth of the population are orcs. Aki can bring the whole fort there. It's much safer, there's better resources, plenty of controled dungeons, books...}
{Seraline, you may be the next chief, but while i maintain this post the tribe will not leave this land.} Interrupted her father while raising a hand, completly unconvinced.
{That's settled then.} Grinned Aki, his wife sighing in defeat. He'd specifically told her this would happen, but she was still quite embarased about how childish he was beeing about showing off. Even if it was a bit cool he wanted to impress her family.
In the end, there was a great party, all the scouts and hunters were called back for it, and the next morning everyone woke up to find there was now a city not too far away from them.