—Next Day, POV—
Waking up the next day, I sat up in bed and looked over my sleeping wives. Looking at them sleeping peacefully, it was almost enough to make me forget what happened the day before. Slipping out of our bed, I went to check on our children and found them still sleeping soundly in their beds. Silently looking over all of them, I felt overwhelming guilt for not being able to protect all of my family.
'I promise you I will be the best Dad I can be for all of you.', I thought kissing my children on their foreheads, 'I meant what I said yesterday, I would give everything I have to protect each of you. Your mothers and all of you have done more for me than you realize, you are the only thing that keeps me, human.'
Leaving them to continue sleeping, I headed down to the kitchen and put some coffee on. Flipping on the news, reporters were in a frenzy covering the events that unfolded yesterday.
"So you are saying that the Lightning Hero: Kessler is actually much older than he looks?", a reporter asked another one of my father-in-laws.
"Aye, the lad is over four hundred years old mentally according to my daughter.", Gearnia's father Sir Boltan said, "The lad is known as the Great Hero of Alestar on our world, saved us from a terrible famine and plague. He brought us all to the negotiation table and made us work out our differences for the sake of the people."
"Did he succeed?", the reporter pressed him.
"Oh yes he did, had to chop off a few bugger's heads to show he meant business. The fucking Human King thought he was entitled to whatever he wanted because humans outnumbered everyone else. He didn't think anyone was going to tell him no…until his head was cut from his shoulders. Should have seen the bloody look on his face when he died!", Boltan laughed, "After his death and a few other deaths, everyone saw he genuinely wanted to help all races and not just humanity. It's the reason my beautiful little girl was allowed to marry him!"
Watching an axe fly into my television, I looked back to see Gearnia bright red with embarrassment. Calling him an ass for embarrassing her like that, she said she'd have married me regardless of his decision.
"...besides which mom agreed with my decision before you did.", she muttered.
Telling her good morning, I offered her some coffee to drink. Accepting the gesture, the other women began trickling out of our room as they woke up. Asking them how they slept, all of them said it was the best sleep they had in a long time. Going to ask them if they wanted breakfast, I felt Vivian start coiling around me. Still partially asleep, she wanted to warm up using my body heat.
"Good morning…", she yawned as she constricted me, "You are so warm…"
"Let him go, Vivian…", Esmeralda sighed, "Are you always going to hog him like this in the mornings?"
"You know my kind are cold-blooded…we need warmth to wake up.", Vivian protested weakly, "Our husband is the best way to-"
"We said let go…", Sith the Snow Woman stated as she touched her body.
Almost letting out a scream, Vivian immediately woke up and glared at her. Shrugging her shoulders, Sith said she should listen when others spoke to her.
"Now now, let's be fair…it's been a long time for me since I have been able to hold you all, cut me some slack.", I said giving them both a kiss.
Relenting the two of them poured a cup of coffee, and got comfortable at the table. Listening to their conversations as they discussed various things, I started getting breakfast ready for everyone. As I put the bacon on, my grandfather showed up with my parents, Nezu, and All Might. Asking them the reason for the visit, my mother was the first to speak.
"Can I see the little ones?", my mother asked with excitement, "I didn't expect to be a grandmother so suddenly and to so many grandchildren."
"You can when they wake up…I presume you all came here for more than just seeing the children.", I remarked, "What's up?"
Informing me that the World Governments had a lot of questions that needed answers, I understood their worry given the circumstances. Agreeing to meet with them to go over things, I figured it was probably best to introduce my wives to my family and friends.
"So all of you know Rumi, Fuyumi, Shino, Ryuko, and Tomoko so they don't need introductions.", I chuckled motioning to my wives, "Going in order…there is Sapphire the Azure Dragon, Luna and Evelyn of the Warrior Rabbit Clan, Princess Celestial the High Elf Kingdom, Aria the Kitsune/Kyubi hybrid, Princess Elouise of the Human Kingdom, Queen Desmina the Dark Elf Kingdom, Princess Gearnia the Dwarf Kingdom, Clover the Halfing, Princess Leona the Beastman Kingdom, Vivian the Echidna, Esmeralda the High Elf, Apple the Bicorn, Repune of the Silver Wolf Clan, Venom the Black Widow Arachne, Shera the Dark Elf, Former Arosta the Demon Kingdom, Silva of the Silver Wolf Clan, Purlin the Nekomata, Princes Yesenia the Araous Kingdom, Isola the Rabbit Kin, Former Queen Eve of the Snow Elves, Sith the Snow Woman, Duchess Ventrice of the Dragon Kingdom of High Rock, Alpha the Dogkin, Queen Darla the Vampire Clan, and Grizzle the Bearkin."
(Auther Note: I will be publishing an organized list next week with photos, some of you have been asking so I wanted to inform you now.)
Doing a mental tally of all the names I listed, they quickly did a headcount to make sure the number was right. Seeing Nezu's face pale, it seemed he was very concerned about the number of women I was associated with. My father's reaction was much closer to what I expected from them.
"Twenty-seven wives before you came here…", my dad said patting the sweat on his forehead, "I…I guess that makes sense based on your actual age. How…how did you get this many wives to agree to be in your harem?"
"He bonded with each of us throughout the years he spent on each world. There are many other women he is close to, but he chose us specifically to be his wives.", Elouise told them, "Our family bond has been shaped through things like starvation, plague, political strife, and the many adventures we have been on him with. Normally you'd be right, but as far as we are concerned…we are sisters."
"Our husband is a far greater man than you realize.", Vivian added, "Many people on Alestar despised snake women like me, the few men that tolerated us would treat us like common whores and leave immediately after mating. Arthur was one of the few men that actually cared about Lamia, you have no idea how much I cried when he asked me to marry him. Only two other Lamia before me had ever been married…that's how badly we were seen before."
"...I…I see, still though with the five here that is thirty-two women.", my dad gulped, "Are you going to be able to survive Cole?"
Hearing my wives snicker, they looked at me with playful smiles. Shaking my head violently, I didn't need them telling my family and friends about our bedroom activities. The five from this world hadn't experienced it yet, but I was planning on showing them soon since things were going very well in our relationship and I was no longer in danger of being taken away from them.
"Ahem…", All Might said changing the subject, "So what are your plans moving forward?"
"First and foremost, I need to get the people from the other five worlds resettled. There are seven hundred and fifty million people that need to be rehomed. Fortunately, I have been buying land in the states that are already ready for them to move into. I will need to secure more land, but that shouldn't be a problem since I am mostly buying desert properties. Secondly, people will need time to become self-sufficient. Fortunately, I still have a massive stockpile of supplies I collected on Alestar from the years of abundance we had towards the last decade of my time there. That will give them roughly four years to start growing crops on their own, or establish trading with other countries.", I replied spelling out my goals, "Third, I will need to help mediate things between them and the World Government. I have done it five times before so I am not concerned about it. Lastly…I am going to hunt down those sons of bitches that took part of my family from me. If I don't chase them down now, they will always be a looming threat to my family. I lost my children and grandchildren once, I will never let that happen again…I'd rather die than let that happen."
Understand what my goals were, everyone agreed that they made sense. Nitpicking one of them though, Esmeralda had some concerns she wanted to voice.
"I have to ask though…how do you intend to track them?", Esmeralda asked me honestly, "You couldn't return to us previously so why is now any different?"
"Rebecca gave me the completed spell they used to traverse the space between worlds…", I said taking her notes out, "Using the God of Destruction's unique magic frequency I should be able to follow his footsteps to where they all went together. From there I will be able to start looking for the six runaway deities."
Interjecting there, Nezu wanted to clear something important up.
"Do we need to be worried about any other potential invasions? If so, I'd like to get plans in place for that now.", he laughed dryly.
"My original world wouldn't bother looking for me nor do they have the means to do so. Outside of that, I have only been to six worlds including this one, and only this one is left now.", I reminded him, "There are only a small number of individuals I know that can cross between worlds, and none of them would have any interest in this world. No offense, but there isn't a lot here for other worlds to want."
Chuckling at that, grandpa said there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Giving them the finer details of my plans, the children started waking up and making a fuss. Leaving the cooking to my wives, I went up to check on the babies. Getting them in fresh diapers and clothing, I used telekinesis to bring them down to their mothers for their breakfast. Excusing themselves, the four men left the room to give them some privacy while my mother stayed and went goo-goo over them.
"They are so precious!", she proclaimed, "Cole, you need to hurry up and have some with your five lovers from this world. I am sure they are-"
Choking on their coffee, the five of them were caught completely off guard by her demand. Looking at one another, Ryuko said she wasn't opposed to it. Stating that we were practically married at this point, she said she wouldn't mind a child of her own.
"I…I do suppose they are pretty adorable.", Rumi admitted looking at the Rabbit kin children of mine.
"We can discuss this later…", I said trying to change the subject, 'I don't need Vivian, Repune, and Silva digging me into a hole, my parents wouldn't understand how their society works. The concept of a communal husband isn't going to fly with them.'
Finishing up breakfast cooking, I served everyone a warm meal and enjoyed having our first real meal together as a whole family.