*** Alzi ***

  My mind calmed after seeing Yuki gently fall asleep. My bed was yet again soaked in blood. Even with Kelly trying to it up, the blood refused to leave. I'll need a new one, meaning I o talk to Mistress. But that is for ter. Right now, I've ed Kelly in a big hug, and I refuse to let go.

  "Thank you! I thought she was going to be like Mai again with my useless abilities! I love ..."

  Yes, I'm rambling a lot tonight, but they've put this pregnant woman through a lot, and it doesn't hurt to shower someoh appreciation for all they've dohrough the years.

  "Alzi!" is all she gets out clearly as the rest of the sentes muffled in my breasts. She gives me a little push, making me relent in my hug. "Alzi, you o be careful! While suffog in your breasts isn't the worst way to go, I would prefer to not die tonight."

  "Oh, sorry. I didn't think about that. I've grown again, I guess."

  "That could just be the pregnanow I'm tired. I'll go let Vasati know you need a new bed and then fall asleep. I love you too, Alzi, and I do like hearing all of that. Just do it in a way I breathe ime. Yuki'll be fine in the m; she's a sturdy girl."

  "Thank you for the help. I don't think I was doing much with all my mana."

  "Your mana is what makes all of this wirl. Try to make it so the ime I see you, it's not a medical emergency." She leaves me with the two kitsune. Yuki is asleep in my blood-soaked bed, and Nakuma is hiding in the er.

  I give the crazy girl a little stare before deg she could use some pany. I walk over and force her into a hug, careful to let her head get over my tits this time.

  "Sorry for yelling at you earlier. I was scared and angry. I knew Yuki was going out to do something dangerous; I just didn't think about that. Thanks fetting her bae," I whisper. I really did mess up yelling at the pirl. She walked in with blood dripping down her body as well, obviously hurt, yet still got Yuki more help. I just reacted to them appearing in front of me.

  "It's fine; you listeo me and saved her. Thanks for not fetting about little old me in the er," she says back as she drifts off to sleep. Her head resting on my tits.

  Two sleeping kitsuh big fluffy tails and I've got a ruined bed stopping me from dreams! These two girls need my close love tonight. My mana would passively finish the healing. It would actually help them to sleep with me.

  I'm not being perverted about it. It is a fantasy of mine, but I'm thinking of the medical bes purely. Not about my hands resting against their rge breast, which Yuki was hiding from me, or their soft tails c me ira warmth. No, just that my mana will naturally seep into their wounds during the night ahem.

  Yuki was quite clear that I couldn't get either of them pregnant for a bit. A small travesty, yes, but she promised they would have some kids ter. Maybe eveing pregnant at the same time. Hehe, twnant kitsune hugging my sides. Maybe Mai...

  "Alzi, how did you bleed so much? We just repced your bed during your st bor. How is your bed destroyed! We pay extra to get beds that easily yet and ..." Vasati pins as she storms into my room, freezing wheices the colorful kitsune in my arms and a passed-out Yuki on my bed. "Alzi, expin this."

  "Yuki and her friend here got hurt. Her friend made it here, where I was able to heal them with Kelly's help." Doing my best not to give away too maails.

  "Sure, sure. And how did they get hurt." Raising an eyebrow at my simple expnation.

  "I'm not sure. Fighting, I guess?" please don't ask more pointed questions! I really don't want to spill what's going on.

  "You're w hard to cover for these two. Huh, fine Yuki is free to do as she wants. You didn't have sex with them, did you?"

  "I was just healing them tonight, Ma'am." It's a good thing I've only had sex with Yuki.

  "Good. Now, I'll take them to Yuki's room and then be back to repce your bed."

  What! No, they were going to cover me with their tails and share their body warmth with me. I mean, I was going to passively heal them tonight.

  "Ok," I stammer out as I hold Nakuma tightly till Vasati es to take her away.

  My dreams were crushed one by one. First, Yuki and then Nakuma were removed. I will say the new bed is fortable, but it e too much.

  *** Queen Yumanea ***

  "What is it?"

  "Your Royal Highness, a rge spell or skill has been used in the mert district. A space spell. We've seed off the area, but the distortion is a rather rge k, so it'll take a few days for the world to fix it naturally. There was also ata an assassin's guild branch. All dead, and the pce burnt to the ground. A merary's remains were found there as well. Likely hired help for the assassin's guild. The mert district attack was also an assassin's guild. Due to the space rift, all we tell right now is that a number of powerful mages were fighting there. With the amount of mana used, the fight sted a long time yet wasn't reported till the rift formed. We're looking into why the fight wasn't reported before the spell was detected," the messenger gave promptly, doing her best to speak quickly and clearly.

  "The guild said they could hahe attacks." Maids start to flutter around to get me ready to leave. I'll o fix this little crad check it out myself; I don't like strong mages ing into town without visiting me first. And I have an idea of who this one is from.

  "Yes, I did report that, but I also stated they were lying." Her smile cracked under my gaze.

  "Yes, you did, but I like to firm what they said and how they act. Tell them I want a report of every assassination, both successful and failed, over the past month tomorrow. If they are going to make this big of a mess, they attacked someohey shouldn't have."

  "I already requested that information. They pined a bit, but I mentioned a few Duchesses that like to hunt, and they gave in."

  "Good. Lead the way. Time to fix this little hole and see who is making a mess in my backyard."

  A short carriage ride ter, and I'm looking at quite the mess. The warehouse was burnt down, revealing a basement that should. Inside is empty, just some ashes from the burnt wood. The building neighb the warehouse shows signs of damage, likely from a fire bst stone. Just a bunch of skeletons remain, skin and ans burnt pletely. In the middle is a swirl of fucked up space slowly closing.

  I turn to the messenger. "The guild has someone here, right? So where are they? Do they think they'll survive pissing me off by avoiding me?"

  Behind her, I see a girl running up to me. Her feet worked overtime to keep the scared girl upright. "No, your Royal Highness. I'm sorry. I was talking with some of the other busihat got hit by the bst. I came here once I heard you arrived."

  "Good, the guild will be paying to fix the damage. The guild should've been strong enough to win or lost in a fashion that didn't have them running without ing up their work."

  "Of course," she responded with a deep bow, as if what I was asking for was actually reasohe issue with running an illegal business is that you 't go to Justice when I start making demands.

  "Any leads?" I ask, heading to the rift. o keep it around any longer.

  "No, your Roy..."

  "Just use Majesty. Saying Royal Highakes too long." Yes, they take basically the same amount of time to say, but she seems useless, so we might as well mess with her instead.

  "Yes, your Majesty. We don't have any leads. Everyone has always been killed iacks. Space magic is on enough that we 't get any leads."

  "Really, space mages that do this." Waving around the giant rift I'm about to close. "Are on?"

  "Well, that part no. But getting a good idea of eople do is hard. Skills let even the weak do powerful things."

  "So weak mages with a lucky skill are killing off your branches? I didn't realize the guild has suhis lower over the years. Maybe I should kill you all myself a a new guild rise from your ashes."

  I start sending in my mana around the edges, pushing the space to sort itself out. It's slow to start, but o gets going, the rest quickly follows until the ominous cut disappears. The woma respond to my test threat, so I give the dumbass a way out. "You should still have a list of possible people you pissed off."

  "We do, yet a space mage isn't among them."

  "Then your scope is too narrow. It shouldn't take me io tell you how to track down your attackers. Look for people attached to those you pissed off and look into the people you've retly assassinated without a thought about who is around them and go looking. This is embarrassing to expin to an assassin's guild."

  "That will take a lot of time to work out. We are starting to go down that path now that we don't have any suitable answers."

  "Work faster. I don't want to have to close another rift in my city. I don't want more businesses burning down for no apparent reason. I'm not happy to tell people that a random business was just burnt to the ground. I don't like lying about that. So get your shit together or appease the people attag you."

  "Yes, your Majesty."

  "Good, now leave. I'll handle looking through this mess. The rift likely made it impossible to tell what ic was used here anyway." As I head off towards where the front of the building used to stand.

  "O thing. We did find more hints of illusion magic being used at the other site. Nothing an entment couldn't do, but still something I want to share."

  "Thank you. Anything else? ... Good."

  Searg through the ash, I only find hints of ah mage. There's another kind here, but it just doesn't e through the sheer volume of Earth mana and the space rift.

  If that third kind is illusion or sound, then my guess would be the two kitsune messing around. Why would Yuki start making a mess? She's been happy pying brothel girl for a while. Even before that, she only assassinated people of other nations.

  Alzi is the only reason why. Did one of my daughters get turned down by her or something? Something to look into. I don't know how easy it would be to appease that girl. She's a princess and just as needy as my own daughters; the guild will likely have to slit a few of their own throats to make it out of this one if I'm right.

  If I'm not, then we likely have another nation pying around in here. Well, a different nation thasune realm. But illusion magid space are the specialties of that Crazy Kitsuhat snu a bit ago.

  As long as this rift doesn't make another appearance, I'll give them a few more attacks before I sit them down to talk it out. The guild could use some humbling.

  Giving up ohird mana type, I head over to my carriage. "e on, we're leaving; there's nothing else to find here."

  tinymikes