"Hmmm," Rykard hummed and gave the dragon woman before him another visual exploration. Her curves filled out the simple clothes quite well, although that was more owed to the tightness of the clothes than her being particularly gifted in the top or bottom department. In both aspects and in the inward curve of her waist, she was slender and feminine. Most importantly, like Rykard preferred, she was thin. Not the kind of thinness that privileged noblewoman encouraged each other to pursue, until their clothes wore them and their midriffs had the structural integrity of a twig.
No, this was the carefully shaped thinness of a violin. Good shoulders, hips that could withstand the taxing processes of life, and thighs that had seen more than one march. In all of these aspects, she was more attractive than the wealthy upperclass of Rykard's homeworld could ever be. There were many reasons why he had preferred servant women over other nobles. Miyo had, by personal choice and pressure of her own culture, maintained a much more pleasing shape.
For a moment, his gaze flickered back over to the asleep fox woman. He allowed himself a moment of longing love. Then he returned to his current conversation partner. "Do tell me about yourself first," he decided. "You have learned my name, but no one has seen it fit to send me a messenger that tells me yours. A travesty, if you ask me."
The suave tone and smile made the wallflower of an artist blush. "My name is Kaela, King Rykard."
"Kaela," Rykard said, as if he had to taste the name. For a few more moments, he stared intensely at her. Under his gaze, she squirmed. 'Oh, I do know that reaction all too well,' he thought and pulled his shoulders back. When in the presence of a man of looks and power, some women made it all too obvious they wished to be pursued. He could have pushed. Sadly, even if he pushed, he was absolutely tapped. He directed the conversation to proper things instead. "Did you build this house?"
"Uhm, n-no," Kaela stammered, then cleared her throat. "Most of the houses in the Exile Hexagon were erected by past generations of artists sent here. More were slowly getting added over time, after the claiming by the gods twenty years ago."
"That is interesting general information… but I was wondering about you," Rykard reiterated with his ever-present smile. "What brought you here?"
"Weeeell… I did a painting…"
"An obscene one?" Rykard drilled a little deeper and got a shy nod. He laughed approvingly. "Who took offense? The family? Local lords?"
"My family." The corners of Kaela's lips trembled a bit, caught between bad memories and the good mood of the man in front of her. "They were of the conservative sort. Believed the Balan does not approve of images of women enjoying themselves."
"I did notice that there's a clear and single-oriented preference for statues of attractive females," Rykard thought out loud. "Not that I mind, quite the contrary, just wondering how that came about?"
"I don't know but… it's sort of the atmosphere of this place? The aesthetics?" Kaela tilted her head softly as she thought about it. "It's not like no one ever thought about making a statue of a man, but we just silently agree we'd all prefer to look at women?"
"That so? Then what do you think of that sight?" He gestured towards the sweat-coated, thoroughly fucked vixen in the bed.
"...It'll be great inspiration," Kaela answered, blinking coquettishly at Rykard all the while.
'Inspiration for more than statues, no doubt,' Ryked thought to himself. "So you were banished to the Hexagon?"
"It was firmly suggested that I would lose my inheritance and my place in the house anyway if I stayed… it's how Aulone deals with us cultured artists."
"A great travesty. In my realm, tastefully suggestive art would not be withheld from the public eye," Rykard put a hand on his heart, as if he was swearing an oath.
Kaela giggled behind a raised hand and continued her story. "I arrived here after some travel, found this empty house, let some of the older people here show me the ropes and now I'm just doing what I love." She looked at the open door and smiled. "It's not that bad. Going into the mine gets exhausting sometimes, but we rarely have to bother with that. The insides of the mountains are practically made out of metal."
Every time Rykard heard that emphasized, he liked the sound of it a little more. Just how large were those deposits? It sounded like it was truly enough to build an entire nation. Maybe not a world-spanning one, but certainly an upstart of a few Hexagons. "Beyond that?"
"Beyond that… not much really. I've just been dedicated to mastering my craft… most of us are." The brunette shifted slightly from one foot to the other.
"No love chased or found?" Rykard asked as dismissively as he could. The house itself already let him into the fact that she was single, but he was interested in the larger context.
"That's a more unspoken agreement between the artists… we're not going to really settle in here until we either were summoned to a new world or it became clear it wouldn't be in this cycle… there'll probably be a lot of relationships starting during and after the upcoming festival." Kaela scratched her chin. "I wouldn't mind finding someone myself."
The invitation was clear, but Rykard had learned from almost losing Miyo about stating things clearly from the start. If he decided to sleep with this woman, he would let her know clearly that it wasn't going to be a one night arrangement.
Before he even broached that subject, he needed his balls to feel less like a deflated sack and for Miyo to be conscious. She would be pouting if he had his first new world conquest without her. Adorable, sure, but he was happier to see her light, content smile. Plus, threesomes were hot.
For now, he steered into more modest waters.
More modest when it came to dealing with the woman in front of him anyway. "I'd like a bath first. Some food and water, while I am at it. Something like that available?" Rykard asked with all the certainty of a monarch. The books outlining the successful attributes of a sovereign in his private library had been devoured over and over again.
A true monarch was certain in things he asked for. To take from subjects for his gain was justified, for as long as he only took what he required to keep himself healthy and to expand the realm and the greater prosperity of it. As long as he did that, none could make a moral justification to deny him, because they were his wards as king.
Basically, as long as he kept his requests reasonable and kept delivering successes to the nation, he could get whatever he wanted. Being a sovereign was just another job, in that way. His task was their safety. His wage was a cut of their productivity.
What he couldn't do was take from them, lavish them in achievements, and backstab fellow power holders in an attempt to get a bigger slice of the pie. 'In other words, I can't ever do what all my siblings did,' Rykard thought.
"We do have a bathhouse," Kaela confirmed. "The water will be lukewarm, but it is clear. You can drink there too… I can bring you some food."
"That sounds good," Rykard stated and walked over to Miyo. The redhead was so out of it, she didn't even stir when he lifted her out of the bed. With a simple gesture, he cleaned the sheets of the stains the dribbling cum had created.
Carrying the nude fox girl did attract eyeballs all over again. Young and middle-aged men and women alike could not keep their eyes off her form. The females in this place were at least openly bisexual.
The bathhouse was nothing special from the outside. Another simple dwelling, put together with cobblestone, mortar, and metal. No windows, a slanted roof, three walls and the mountainside keeping its inside isolated from the outside. The inside, however, was as luxurious as one could ask from a small community in the mountains.
A natural spring from somewhere deep within the stone emerged from the encapsulated path of mountain stone. It broke into two streams. One filled a well, constantly supplying the village with fresh and clear water. The other filled a large, oval basin. It sat in the middle of a nicely smoothened stone floor. A few metal racks along the walls made for the optimal place to leave one's clothes or towels.
Rykard put his backpack down and Miyo on top of it. She curled up like an actual sleeping fox, legs pulled in and tail almost tickling her nose. The cushion-filled container made for a fine temporary rest, while he got out of his own clothes. "I-I'll leave you to it!" Kaela stammered and headed back out the door.
"Simple foods will suffice!" Rykard shouted after her, amused, before she closed the door.
Putting his clothes on and over the racks, the now nude king knelt down next to Miyo and rubbed his hands together. A green light played around them, mana shaping into vitality.
Restoration magic was a complicated affair. Bodies were a complex machinery when they ran by themselves. To intervene in the processes only made things more complicated.
Magic could preempt starvation and exhaustion. Simplified, the human being could be viewed as a vast alchemical contraption, with life force as the liquid that filled it. To close cracks in that system, in the form of wounds, was the easiest Restoration one could cast, mostly because it just aided natural processes. To whisk away exhaustion or to provide the nourishment of meals, that was much more difficult.
Not only did one have to pour new life force into the person, it had to be directed into the specific areas of the complicated biological machinery. Even the greatest masters struggled with this, so it was natural that Rykard would have a few minor issues. Best to have slept at least a little before and to have food and water ready, so that the body could take care of what he would fail on with its own processes.
Concentrating the green light on the parallel tips of his index and middle fingers, Rykard pushed the curled up first of his harem onto her back. His digits journeyed from the bottom of her chin, down her slender neck, over the solid path of her sternum between the sloped mounds of her breasts, past her solar plexus and down to her flat stomach. When he brushed past her navel and to her womb, the eyes of the exhausted woman began to stir behind the lids.
A gentle awakening was always the sign of a successful Restoration. When the vital energy filled the body too slowly, it failed to properly penetrate the defenses it had against magical effects, even benevolent ones. When it was too fast, it flooded into all manners of systems it had no right being in at that moment, causing a violent and often painful pull out of the land of slumber. A proper Restoration nudged the person and let them awake on their own accord, like one would naturally after a good night's rest.
Miyo stretched, her eyes opening. "Master," she mumbled, her voice raspy, and leaned into the hand he placed adoringly on her warm face. A few blinks later, she looked around. Her eyes immediately fell on the well. "You certainly do know what a lady needs first thing in the morning. How long have I been out, Rykard?"
"Depends on how you mean that. You stopped making sense about three hours ago. You only slept for about twenty minutes though."
Miyo walked over to the well as he talked. Several handfuls of water poured down her throat. Little excess dripped alluringly from her chin. That not even the sight of the naked woman's ass stirred Rykard's cock back to life made it clear that he was well and truly done for the day. "A renewed display of your magical might then. I feel better rested than before you broke my little brains on your cock. Did the residents appreciate the sight?"
"You are likely being eternalized as we speak," Rykard joked. His smile stayed, but his eyes became serious for a moment. "Do the ritual."
"...Of course, Master," Miyo purred. Drawing little forms above her womb with the wetness of the water, she whispered to herself. The arcane words remained to herself, as did the truth the ritual revealed to her closed eyes. A smile, much broader than anything she usually displayed, gave away the answer before she spoke it. "Your seed did take, Rykard. I'm pregnant with a girl."
A deep joy rose within his chest and he wrapped his arms around the redhead. "My queen, first of my harem, and first of the mothers to my children," he whispered into her ear, while she nuzzled tightly against him. "You keep accumulating impressive titles."
"All with you, my love," Miyo whispered back, kissing her way up his neck. Their lips found each other in a deep kiss. Their life was accelerating and changing in all manner of ways that had been impossible or unlikely just two days ago.
"I best take proper care of your body, now that you're bearing my first child."
"We'll have to discuss the nature of your primogeniture soon," Miyo hummed thoughtfully. In her culture, women had been excluded from inheriting titles. In his, men were the preferred but not only heirs. There was no need to stick to either. "I am merely a few hours pregnant. For now, let's enjoy the fact that I can still serve you unimpeded, Master."
The redhead nudged him towards the bath. Holes at the bottom let it flow out at the same rate that it was replenished, keeping it steadily clean. Around the rim of the basin, an outcropping of stone served as a bench. Rykard sat there in the water. It was colder than he would have preferred, but not cold enough that it bothered him. Especially not with Miyo doing the work of a particularly promiscuous bathing servant.
Breasts pressed against his partly submerged back, the redhead glided up and down his skin. Her hands rubbed his hairless, toned chest. Occasionally, she cupped a handful of water and poured it over him, before resuming her scrubbing. With her entire body, she cleansed him.
Hard nipples and audible breaths made clear how much all of this excited her. "I truly am carrying your child," she whispered in his ear.
That, after all, succeeded in giving him another erection.
With a deep hum and a motion of thoughtless certainty, he lifted her back out of the bath and pinned her on the floor. Miyo cried, unashamed, when he slammed into her cunt. The thin door would hold none of the sounds in, but what did she have to hide after entering the village naked, cock drunk and freshly bred?
Rapidly, he rutted into her, while tasting the sweetness of her lips. After the marathon that had been getting to this village, this was a sprint. He did not care for measured pleasure or longevity. All he wanted to do was make the eyes of his first haremette roll up in their sockets.
It took barely anything to succeed. Miyo's body still remembered the ecstasy it had been in not too long ago. Muffled screams reverberated in Rykard's lips. Arms and legs were wrapped around him, keeping her so tightly attached to him that her ass rose from the ground whenever he pulled more than halfway out of her.
The time that passed was unclear. The constant, simple rutting was as straightforward as it was effective. Spasming under him, Miyo added an entirely different kind of wetness to the ground. Her pussy kept constricting around his cock - the only cock that ever got to penetrate her. The seed that inevitably began to rise was the only seed that ever got to flow into her womb.
Rykard slammed to the hilt into her. He was feeling lightheaded from the constant kissing, while his cum pumped into the depths of her conquered womb. It was a short lived orgasm. The miraculous recovery of the blood flow to his nethers did not reflect a resurgence of semen to fill her with.
Recovering much quicker than her, because of that and the typical difference between male and female orgasms, Rykard raised his head. He was not surprised to find Kaela standing in the doorway, holding a tray with bread and dry meat, and a group of other people peeking into the chamber behind her.
"Just leave it there," Rykard told her, a broad smile on his face.
"Y-yes!" Kaela shouted and put the tray on the ground, before hastily closing the door behind her.
"She's… hmmm… cute," Miyo hummed. Aftershocks continued to make her tremble, even a little while after they made it back into the bath.
"What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing," Rykard rolled his neck, until the fox woman began giving him a massage. Even his shoulders were stiff after carrying her and the luggage all day.
"I believe I should state that I would not approve of you impregnating any women beyond this harem we're building," the redhead informed him, her soft voice back to calm and calculating. "The inheritance will be difficult enough to settle without you making women single mothers."
"Such an act would violate my honour anyway. You think I would leave one of my children alone and forsaken, isolated from their family?" Rykard shook his head, seeing his own, serious face reflected in the gently rippling surface of the water. "No, fun outside my haremettes will be clearly just that. I'll make sure anything I fill them with will not be fertile."
"Good." Miyo scratched him behind the ears. His weren't nearly as sensitive as hers. That didn't stop it from feeling nice.
They took the rest of the bath and the meal that followed in content silence.