The Quantum Wanderer

I go home. It is a little past noon now. The girls are not home. I turn to Muninn.

“Muninn, where are the girls?”

“They have to gone to Shoria, father.”

“Ok. Is our room in there empty?”

He closes his eyes for a little bit, just a long blink, before answering.

“It is father.”

I open a portal to Shoria. We are in our luxurious and clean room. I leave through the door. A maid is doing room cleaning, she jumps scared when she sees me, before relaxing. She is eyeing Muninn with some suspicion.

I walk through the corridors. I pass by the front desk, and I wave at the girl on the counter. She doesn’t really recognizes me, but waves back at me all the same.

With my senses, I feel that once I leave through the door, she leaves the front desk to go to a room in the back, where another person is. Probably checking with Indira who is the strange person that appeared from the rooms instead of the front door.

I walk down the streets. I am guessing that girls are visiting Akiko and Hikari before getting their nails done, I go that way. Even if they aren’t, I would go visit them anyway.

When I am at Hikari’s mannor gates, I see the girls approaching. They are holding some cones, likely fashioned from some round pancake like dough, with rasped ice in it. Each one of them have a different color on top of the ice.

I am looking at them. Cecilia gets a large amount on her mouth, and then does a face and puts her hand on her forehead. I smile. The other girls couldn’t be bothered by that.

“So, I see that I was left behind while my wives are just having fun around town… I would never think that my wives would abandon me…” I am placing the back of my hand against my forehead.

The dragonesses rush towards me, they start apologizing.

“I am sorry my lord! Please forgive us!” Opal says.

Aquamarine has a pained expression, Ruby and Shandon are looking at the floor. I put a smile on. Cecilia sighs.

“Sisters, he is messing with you…”

Huginn flies to the shoulder opposite Muninn, and hits me a couple of times with her beak. It would probably have killed someone else, but it wasn’t enough to draw blood.

“I am sorry, I couldn’t resist…”

Kissing them improves on their humor a little bit. When I push to kiss Cecilia, she pushes out.

“Fuck, no! You were mean to my sisters!”

I laugh. The dragonesses are looking at the different dynamics. I turn to them.

“What is this you were eating?”

“It is shaved ice. It is new, it uses fruit flavors. Do you want some, my lord?” Ruby offers.

I take a small bite. Then I take a small bite of the other ones. Each one of those have a very different taste, but they are all very sweet, while having very colorful tastes. I turn to the girls.

“Do you know it is new? I would guess that with ice magic, a mage could do something like this easily.”

“The issue lies in the fruit flavors, my lord. They apparently are sold by dwarven merchants, but imported from elves. They are made in a way that they don’t spoil easily, and the production of the extracts is a trade secret from the elves.” Opal answers, quite proud of understanding the commerce.

“They are a little on the expensive side, though.” Ruby comments.

I look at Cecilia. She is supposed to be the one controlling their finances.

“One silver coin each. Hey, this is the noble district, right?” She shrugs.

I turn to the guards, that have been watching this exchange. He is looking at my wives.

“Excuse me.” I pass my hand in front of him, so that he can take his eyes out of my wives cleavage and listen to me. “Can you please inform lady Hikari that the honored guest is here? Just please inform her that I don’t want to be a bother, though.”

“Oh, the honored guest?” He takes a look, notices Muninn and Huginn. “Oh, right! Please come with me, sir!”

He opens the gate, we join him while we go through the path with the gardens around us.

“Do you know if lady Akiko is here as well? I was hoping so, but I am not sure.”

“Yes, she is, sir.”

We get close to the door, he signals me to wait while he knocks on the door and talks to another guard. The door is opened, and we are taken to a living room. While we wait, I turn to Cecilia.

“Cecs, I never asked, but when do you think the baby is due? How long is a pregnancy?” I could make the math, but I always counted pregnancies in months, not in weeks. And Earth months at that.

“Around 8 months – 40 weeks. There are cases of some coming earlier than others, though. But I don’t know when Hikari got pregnant… But now that you mention…  How long ago did the whole Julian thing happen?”

“Do you mean the time when we first met him, sister?” Shandon asks.

“Sure.”

“One cycle, almost to the day.”

That kept me thinking. Even if I am used to counting pregnancy in months rather than days, a normal one would be nine months. Each month has around 4.3 weeks. Nine months should be very close to 40 weeks. The baby should be a couple of months old by now, at least.

I keep looking at the girls. I know that Cecilia is going to just go crazy with a baby. I wonder what is going to be the reaction from the dragonesses.

Akiko and Hikari are really taking their time, but I guess that would be natural. Dressing the baby and whatnot.

There is some sound coming from the stairs, and Akiko and Hikari are coming down, slowly. But the weird part is… Hikari is still pregnant.

They come down the stairs, slowly. Cecilia goes up to offer help, but Akiko is already helping, the other hand is in the handrail.

“Honorable guests! What a joyful visit!” They take a couple of steps down.

I am looking at the scene, checking the numbers I had in my head. The numbers looks correct. This is weird.

Huginn gives me a pinch on the shoulder. I walk slowly towards the stairs, while they come down. We get close at the base of them.

“Hikari, Akiko. How are you?”

“We are well, we are well. How about you?”

“We have all been doing very well.”

Akiko points to the sofa with her chin. I accompany them until Hikari sits down, then I sit down on the opposite couch, by Cecilia and Opal.

I am unconsciously tilting my head while I stare at Hikari’s belly. It is a little bigger than last time. I saw that she was already pregnant when we had that inconvenience with her in-laws…

And I receive a slap on the back of the head. I turn to my right and see Cecilia. She is angry.

“You are making Hikari uncomfortable!”

I pass my hand over the place that got slapped. I give Hikari a yellow smile. She looks at her mother and her mother stares at her. Then she looks at me. There is some sort of conspiracy in the air. Not our place to ask, though. They both look at me. Akiko sighs.

“You probably realized already.” She says, with a worried tone.

Cecilia tilts her head. The dragonesses nod. I tilt my head as well. I avoided doing some deeper examination on them, but I would guess that very little could escape the dragonesses senses. Or Muninn and Huginn’s, for that matter. But I never asked either.

“Some of the girls probably did, but I haven’t.” I say.

Akiko purses her lips. She looks at Hikari and holds her face in her hands.

“My daughter, I have always been afraid of this moment. There is something that I have to tell you. It is about your father.”

I feel a little awkward. I feel like I probably should be giving them space to talk about those things alone.

“Err… I am sorry, but should we come back some other time?”

Akiko looks at us for a long time. She is deep in thought. She looks at Hikari, then back at us.

“If you don’t mind, honored guest. I thought that some things might just be hidden in the past, but I have to talk to my child first.”

I slap my legs and stand up.

“Alright, then. We are going to go. We can come back at a later time.” I stop to think a little bit on whether they have already seen that Muninn is not what he looks like, but they have both been in my wedding, so the secret is out around here.

“Muninn, can we leave a birdphone behind?”

He giggles a couple of times.

“Sure, father.”

“Birdphone? What is that?” Hikari asks.

I giggle.

“Keep this bird safe. If you talk to the bird, we are going to know. It is a way you can call on us, should something happen.”

“Oh! And you’re leaving a divine beast with us? Just to communicate? Are we really worthy all that, honored guest?”

I shrug.

“Not really a divine beast. A bird. You are going to have to feed it, take care of it. But you are also going to be able to contact us through it. Unless you don’t want it.”

“Of course we want it! I just feel like we are taking advantage of you, honored guest! You have already done so much!”

“It’s ok.”

The bird comes in through a window. It lands on her shoulder. It sings a little. Akiko giggles.

“It’s so pretty! Thank you!”

“No problem.” I turn to my wives. “Now girls, let’s go?”

We say our goodbyes and leave the manor. After we are a block away, Cecilia asks.

“So tell me, sister, what is she?”

The dragonesses look up, trying to think of a good term.

“Akiko is a human through an through, sister. But her daughter has something of a fox mixed in. It is very subtle, though. And her unborn hatchling has some stronger mana, already stronger than Hikari’s. I believe it will probably have something of a fox in him.” Shandon answers.

“That is very curious…” I say.

“Why did you leave a bird with them?” Aquamarine asks. “As far as we know, the unborn hatchling and the mother seem to be doing well, my lord.”

“Yes, but I am fearing they might start getting pressured by other nobles. Neighboring nobles now have an excuse to attack her, without retaliation from the crown.”

Aquamarine tilts her head.

“What do you mean, my lord?”

“They can allege that she was just a girlfriend they picked from the streets. That she never had anything to do with the family. And that the unborn child is not Julian’s son.”

“Because the son would have been conceived after Julian’s death.” Cecilia completes the thought.

“Exactly. If I did the math, people around probably are doing it as well. They might feel like the risk is smaller.”

“Hum…” Cecilia lets out the sound, looking at me. “And then sometimes you surprise me…”

I laugh. We keep walking till we get close to the nail salon. The place is quite luxurious. I leave the girls, and I stroll a little bit around the city. Muninn stays with me.

This city is a lot more colorful than Stronghold or Orora. It is about as colorful as the city of the elves, even if for completely different reasons.

While I am walking around, seeing the different shops and what the city has to offer, I whisper to Muninn.

“I was thinking. What do you like to do for fun? Would you like to go somewhere?”

“Hum… I must say that you are entertaining enough, father. But if I had to pick something, perhaps somewhere I could stretch the wings…? I mean, really stretch them?”

I nod at him. I go sense people around me. No one is looking. I enter an alley, and I open a portal to the beach in Drakonia. We jump through it.

“Knock yourself out…”

“What about you, father?”

“I am going to practice some of the new magic I have been studying.”

“Thanks.”

He takes off, turning into his big size mid flight. He flies higher, to a point where he glides on the wind. He even closes his eyes.

I use a little bit of earth magic to produce an almost chair of sand. I sit down, cross my legs and start meditating. Focusing on the superposition state. There is a sensation of joy associated with it as well.

“FATHER! FATHER!”

I open my eyes, Muninn is close to the sand structure.

“WHERE WERE YOU?”

I shrug.

“I was here.”

He lowers his head, looking at me, the four red slits close to my face. I can sense that he is scanning the area.

“You scared me. For some time, your presence got spread around. I know you are practicing your new thing, but let us know.”

I shrug. He continues.

“Let’s just go home.”

Something triggered him, apparently. I will ask him later. I open a portal, we go home.

It is the middle of the afternoon. I imagine how the night is going to be for Huginn. There are still a couple of cities for her to visit. Not many though. Now that the news are spreading, the order in the whole country is changing by itself. I pet Muninn’s chest, absent mindedly.

Last night she was able to attend to two cities at once. I imagine how it is going to be today. The groups spreading the information are probably going to different towns.

I go to the crow tree outside, under it’s shade, and lay down a little. The birds move around so that they are not on top of me. I take a breath, relaxing while looking at the gardens. I relax, the scenery is really calming.

I am woken up by Ruby, sitting on top of me, her face one inch from mine. I smell her perfume. Her scent is always this smell of fire. Not quite something burnt, but the smell of burning. I hug her, she kisses me. When we split, she clears her throat.

“I was told to wake you up, my lord. Time to wash up and dinner.”

“Thank you.”

We do exactly that.

During dinner, I turn to Huginn.

“How are things going in the Holy Kingdom?”

“Well, you know how things are slow… Specially since their communications are kind of broken, and travel between cities is so slow.

“That being said, there is a kind of army that is appearing, made by adventurers. They are getting organized by that woman I named crow queen…”

Huginn laughs a little bit.

“If you think I don’t like the priests, you should see how she treats them… The rumors the priests are trying to spread are naming her ‘Wrax’s devil consort’. Let’s say that right now people are more scared of crows than inquisition. And that is saying a lot.”

Muninn laughs.

“Right now, even birds put priests running away. Only on closer cities, of course. The rumors are spreading slowly.”

“Didn’t they start sending soldiers around? What about navigation?”

“Those are the suggestions of most commanders. The ones calling the shots are the bishops, though. And they don’t let any soldier go. If the commander asks to use a higher level soldier, that would cover a larger distance, he gets denied. They did send some lower level soldiers, but then the problems started.

“The soldiers were sent without armor to be able to run. Let’s say that they reevaluate professions once they do find a city that has already been hit. The way to those take some days, so there were not returnees so far.”

“And what about pluvial sailing?” I ask.

“There are some of them. But they are not getting far before, you know, something accidentally catches fire. You know, wood, river, those things are very flammable, papa.”

I laugh at Huginn’s sarcasm.

“Are you going to be busy tonight?” I ask her.

“Yes. You know, just a little nudge here and there, to keep them in line.”

All of a sudden, Muninn starts laughing. I turn to him.

“What?”

“Some neighboring cities are receiving some information. They think that, and I quote, ‘they can only descend from hell during the night – Nergal still controls the daylight’.”

I giggle a couple of times.

“Do you want us to go with you, Huginn?”

She looks at me for some instants, before answering.

“No need, papa. Everything is under control.”

“Ok. Just be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Ruby snorts at that. She almost chokes on a piece of kraken steak.

“Daughter, if you come back hurt I will flick you on the beak.” Ruby says, and giggles.

Ruby puts her hand up, and does a flick. A super-sonic flick. The boom makes the utensils rattle.

I was going to complain, but Opal was faster.

“Sister! Look what you did! You are scaring our favorite humans! Behave!”

Ruby sees a maid in the corner of the room. She is flabbergasted on the display of power. Ruby puts on her best puppy face, and turns to the maid.

“Sorry…”

Somehow that calms down the maid. But I enhance the mana sensing, I can feel some mana coming from Aquamarine. She is kind of fixing the situation.

We relax a little bit after dinner. I go to bed, I am going to start school tomorrow.

Next morning Muninn and Huginn sleep in. The girls and I have breakfast. The girls put on their armor, while I get the school issued mage robes on.

I know it is not going to hurt me, but comparing these to the clothes made of elven cotton makes them distasteful. I have been spoiled by the elves. I have been spoiled by everyone, actually.

The girls are going to use their private dormitory as a destination to a gate spell. For now, I have to walk. I entered late, I didn’t want Edward to take someone else’s dormitory for this. And I don’t mind. It is not a short walk, but it is much faster considering my levels.

I get to the schools, I wait for the girls close to the girl’s dormitory. As I see some time passing, I get a little impatient. I worry about the time. This female mage passes by me.

“Excuse me, can you help me?”

She looks at me. Her clothing is not standard, she must be either a second or a third year.

“What are you doing here? Are you lost, rookie?”

I understand her point of view, I am a tad too close to the women’s dormitory for her comfort. But I am in a public area. Though few, there a couple of guys around. I put on my best smile and reply.

“Not really, but… I am here waiting for some girls, I wonder if they might have gone to class already? Cecilia, Opal, Ruby, Aquamarine and Shandon?”

“Huh?” She looks at me from head to toes. Her face is of someone that has been offered some food that smells really bad. I continue to speak to her.

“Do you know who they are?”

She furrows her eyebrows.

“Of course I know who they are. Everyone knows who they are. I don’t know who *YOU* are.”

“Oh, of course.” I extend my hand to her. “I am Marcelo. I am their husband.”

She looks at the hand I am offering, then at my face. Granted, I am average looking. She giggles a couple of times, then laughs a little. She looks to the side, notices another student in mage garments.

“Julia! Come here! You won’t believe this!”

The mage turns her head, and approaches us.

“What’s going on, Liza?”

“This has been here is telling me he is The Five’s husband. Can you believe it?” She turns to me. “You really should pick smaller lies.”

“Yes!” The other one jumps in. “We heard that they are married to a mithril adventurer, called Marcelo Lionheart! A strong warrior with a gentle heart that freed them from bad people!” She holds her hands together. “The hero of Frolk! A true knight!”

I start laughing. This apparently pisses them off. I can feel them starting to channel mana. This might get complicated.

Just then, four girls in enchanted adamantite armor put themselves between me and the wannabe danger, while the fifth one talks from behind them.

“You got here before I expected, dear.”

The two girls in front of me freeze. They cut the spell immediately, and step to the side, to let Cecilia approach as well. The first one bows.

“Nice to meet you. I am glad you found them.”

The two students turn around and leave in an accelerated pace.

Cecilia sighs.

“Really? More women?”

I laughed.