"Okay, we have a lot of work to catch up on. Alicia's out of commission on account of being pregnant. Monsters are cropping all across the countryside as we're heading into the summer months, and farmers trying to collect their harvests are overwhelmed." Kanae nodded to Meidina to begin passing out quest notices.

The fighting members of Amethyst Hall gathered in the main chamber early the next morning. Leaving Radevic for over a year had piled up plenty of work to do. Normally, their job was to slay dangerous monsters that the average adventurers couldn't. Towns and cities sent those uncompleted quests to Radevic, petitioning officials high up in the pecking order for help, which typically landed on Kanae's desk.

Estaline von Cleisseldor, the Knight of Silver, was previously tasked to do just that many years ago, which was why she was sent to kill the dragon sighted in Orturic. Now that the Knights of the Order of Colors had been specialized, the responsibility fell to Amethyst Hall due in large part to their particularly strong roster.

They were a lively and diverse bunch, all capable of in their own rights. Kanae was proud to have recruited friends and former enemies alike.

"A yellow dragon, hmm?" Hilde glanced over the notice Meidina handed to her.

"Figured I'd give you the chance to subjugate it if you want," Kanae said.

"I'm embarrassed to fight for a country whose adventurers can't kill ironhide bulls on their own. What are they raising here? Weaklings?" Petyr scoffed.

"No, you're just absurdly strong…" She rolled her eyes.

"Awww, man. You're sending me all the way to Saffory? That's a stone's throw from Lograin!" Edina complained.

Saffory was a small city east of Lograin that processed flowers grown from surrounding farms for dyes. They had tens of thousands of acres that were facing an infestation of giant bees.

"Your undead won't care about being stung by steelstingers. Besides, your dragon can get you there a lot faster than the rest of us," Kanae explained.

"Fine, fine. Guess I could add the swarm to my army." Edina rubbed her hands together.

"You all have your assignments. Best of luck, everyone!" She dismissed most of her all, and they shuffled out to get to work.

Even Thume and Tess, the most recent addition to Amethyst Hall, weren't spared from their own monster-slaying quest. In fact, both of them had been here for over a year now and fit in quite nicely.

The only ones that stayed beyond were those not suited for combat. Alicia remained seated, having accompanied her sisters to join the meeting. Now that Claudia and Hilde were gone, she had no one to keep her company anymore.

"How are you and the baby feeling?" Kanae came over to ask.

"No complaints. My gut tells me our baby is going to be a good girl. She doesn't kick at all. She does move around a little when I hum to her." Alicia smiled, beckoning her closer for a listen.

Kanae kneeled down and pressed an ear to Alicia's belly. It began to vibrate from the sound of her soft lullaby. The baby moved back and forth ever so slightly, and when Kanae joined Alicia in her humming chorus, their child seemed to draw closer to the barrier between them.

"How do you think your family will take this?" Kanae peeled away and asked.

"I could care less about what they think. I haven't even told them that I'm with child. The last thing I want is for this one to be a blind cultist and servant of a devil. What matters to me is that we have something special together, and… and…" Alicia quieted down and frowned.

"What's wrong? Is it the baby?" She hovered over her worriedly.

"I'm craving onion soup…" The succubus pouted.

Kanae stared at her in disbelief before they both erupted into laughter. Fortunately, Reen was awake to help solve that matter for them. She had already cooked a hearty breakfast for Amethyst Hall, so the kitchen was still fired up.

"Sorry for the wait! Two onion soups for the Knight-Commander and Vice-Captain!" Reen cruised in with a bowl in each mitted hand. "I also have a cauldron with more if you guys want seconds, thirds, and fourths."

The dark elf cook had been refining her talents with greater motivation ever since joining Amethyst Hall. Kanae had worried Reen might slack off, but she might very well be the most diligent member. No one went hungry. Sometimes, classmates and members of other halls dropped by just to have her cooking. Runald came by every now and then, too, to visit his colleague.

"This is heavenly, Shireen. Your cuisine always hits the spot." Alicia sighed in bliss after the first bite.

"Hehe. Anytime! I get an early start to make your kid a fan of my cooking, so the pressure's on. I'll be cleaning up if you need me!" Reen returned to the kitchens with a spring in her step.

Kanae and Alicia enjoyed the quiet morning eating onion soup. It might have been too much to ask that it stay quiet. The rumble of a flock of succubi children came rushing into Amethyst Hall, and Kanae sensed exactly who they were. All of them.

"Mamaaaaa!"

Teana swooped in first, tackling Kanae a few steps backwards. She was followed by her little sisters. Revah, who was giving Feraline a piggyback ride. Pan, with Suvee. And finally Mikki, with Kanade. A big family hug ensued of Kanae's children mobbing her.

"Hey, girls. Some of you got a little taller!" Kanae enveloped them with her wings.

"You noticed— Wait, that's not important! Why didn't you tell us you got back yesterday? We haven't seen you in so long, and we had to find out from Feraline coming to us and saying, 'mom home!' a few minutes ago," Teana protested angrily.

"You're right, and I'm sorry. It's just been a really tiring journey in Savir. I just wanted to get some rest first. Oh! Did you all get to meet the soon-to-be newest member of the family?" She quickly changed topics and directed their attention to Alicia.

Mikki nodded. "We did! When Alicia returned, she started showing signs and introduced us first."

"I figured they should know first, since our child is going to be their half-sister." Alicia cradled her belly.

The older girls fussed over Alicia and the unborn baby. They were at that age where small children tickled them pink. Their goblin and hobgoblin blood probably stoked the urge to sire children much earlier than other races of the same age. In a few years, Kanae might see grandchildren. All likely to be fathered by Nelly, no less.

Feraline, Kanade, and Suvee were also excited to welcome another sister, but their reactions were a smidge muted compared to the others. Kanae's two elven children were a whole head taller than she last remembered. She wished they could stay small forever.

"So, how's Radevic? Do you miss home?" Kanae kneeled down to their eye level.

"It sucks here. The teachers are strict. The boys are meaner. I want to go home already and see my friends!" Suvee exclaimed.

"Radevic is okay." Kanade, on the other hand, was fine with wherever as long as she had Suvee by her side.

If Kanae remembered correctly, Arenade enrolled them at a private school in Brighton. They probably missed the more carefree nature of classes back in Ehmvier under Headmistress Marnie.

"We can go back once I finish work here. I'm sure Marnie will be glad to have you two in her school again." Kanae ruffled their hair.

"Yo, Kanae! Oops. Did I come at a bad time?" someone asked from the entrance.

The Knight of Red, Sivvy Brenhallow, entered looking a lot cleaner and freshened up since coming back from Savir. Her blood red and orange plumes were no longer covered in dirt, overgrown claws had been filed to a polished point, and shoulder-length dark brown hair were draped down to one side.

"No, you're fine. Kids, meet the Knight of Red. Sivvy, these are my children. And plus one in the oven." Kanae named off every single one of them and gestured to Alicia last.

"Whoa, you're so big! Like as tall as Petyr!" Suvee ran up to her and exclaimed.

"Haha! If you want to grow big and strong like me, make sure to eat plenty of bones!" Sivvy grinned.

"Oooh— huh?" The girl furrowed her brows in confusion. "Eat… bones…"

"When Auntie Edina comes back, we can ask her for some bones." Kanade patted her sister on the shoulder.

Kanae squinted at them. She was going to need to have a talk about that later before they actually tried eating bones.

"What brings you over? Come to check out Amethyst Hall for ideas to do for your own hall?" Kanae asked.

"About that…" Sivvy pointed to the golden, gem-encrusted genie lamp affixed to her belt. "Elirashj is getting impatient about what she wants."

As if on cue, the lamp shuddered to life. The elemental lord of wind emerged from the spout and loomed over them. Her lower body was connected to the opening, looking like gas escaping from the lamp. Suvee and Kanade hid behind Kanae's back, but Feraline stood her ground and snarled at Elirashj.

"Kanae Toyomi. You obtained everything you wanted when I helped you win the war. But I? I received nothing yet. I do not like being lied to," Elirashj said.

"I promised that you will. It's just going to take time! I just got back to Radevic the other day. You're virtually immortal. You can at least spare me a few months or years to do it," Kanae pleaded.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. That is time for you to weasel out of our deal. If you will not give me what I want, I may simply take it. Let's see… These specimens appear to be succubi. Perhaps, I will take my pick—"

Enraged, Kanae came between them and glared back into Elirashj's vortex eyes with her own fury.

"No one touches my children. No one. If you so much as lay a finger on them, consider our deal broken. And I'll find the deepest trench in the ocean to throw your lamp in," Kanae threatened.

"Hmm." Elirashj pulled back and shrunk a little to appear less menacingly. "Very well. I did not mean to seize your spawn. Now I know. I will grant you time to give me a succubus. For the short term, I expect you to make good on providing me with other, more readily available specimens."

With that, Elirashj returned to the comforts of her oil lamp.

"Sorry, Kanae… for bringing this to you when your family was around." Sivvy rubbed the back of her head.

"It's not your fault. It's mine. I made the deal with her to begin with." Kanae sighed.

"Was the last leg of your journey in Savir that exciting? And here I thought what happened in Avanesse was the height of it." Alicia giggled.

"Sounds like fun! Tell us all about it!" Pan urged them.

"You still have classes." She pinched Pan's nose. "I know, because I attended them back then. You guys slacked off enough. Arenade's probably worried sick about Kanade and Suvee going missing. And take Feraline back to Silver Hall!"

"Okay…" Everyone groaned.

"Tell Aunt Aisha I said hi, mom!" Mikki waved on the way out.

Sivvy departed after they left, and Kanae helped Alicia up to her bedchamber to rest. In the meantime, she descended down to Aisha's alchemy laboratory. The hobgoblin was surrounded by bubbling cauldrons, steaming beakers, and going from shelf to shelf to find the right ingredients.

Everyone once in a while, Aisha paused in front of a cauldron, scooped the contents into a vial, and then growled like they wronged her.

"My kids dropped by. Mikki said hi." Kanae entered, only to get sidestepped by Aisha walking past her to grab something off the far shelf.

"Aw, she should've said hi herself. Mikki's been coming over a few times a week to get some guidance on alchemy. It's getting to the point where she's the one teaching me. Your kid is smart for her age. A real glutton for knowledge!" Aisha couldn't stop breathing heaps of praise.

"Really? Looks I should be thanking you for looking after her while I was gone. Anyway, I came down to check how things were progressing with the fertility potion," she said.

"Not that great." The alchemist shook her head. "Every concoction is falling short. It's like I'm missing an important ingredient to tie it all together."

Aisha's discerning eyes settled on Kanae and widened.

"What…?" Kanae backed away.

"A succubus' fertility is about as terrible as a rock. But for a succubus crowned with the Seductress class, we may have something. Kanae, switch on your Versatile Womb and spit into this." Aisha handed her a glass jar.

"Er. Okay." She activated Versatile Womb, granting herself an overwhelming urge to have sex, and did as asked.

Aisha snatched it off Kanae's hands, returned to one cauldron, and began to fill it full of ingredients. The mixture boiled intensely. Some liquid spilled over the lip. She turned down the heat, and they waited until the alchemical waters settled.

"How do we know if it worked?" Kanae asked.

"Well, when potions and elixirs fail, they either explode or their ingredients don't combine. The fact that the liquid is homogenous is a good thing. The only way to find out if it works is to test it though," Aisha explained, ladling a few vials.

"I'm not going to be the test subject. I already have another baby coming," she said.

The hobgoblin shrugged and drank a vial right in front of Kanae.

"I'll ship this batch to the beastman tribe in Savir and keep working on the fertility potion just in case. In the meanwhile, I'm going to go find that human paladin." Aisha put out the fires under each of her cauldrons and left in a hurry.

It seemed like Will was going to have a surprise soon enough, too.

"Alright…" Kanae whipped out the list of Elirashj's demands. "Time to get started."