Chapter 1624: 1623: Tribute |
My desk was once again overflowing with papers and journals, returning to its original state as I forced Jahi to hand over a bit of the work that she was having to deal with during my many, many months of pregnancy and dealing with the pups.
Whilst I was extremely thankful that she was so willing to shoulder a majority of this sort of work to allow me to be with the children, all it ended up doing was making me feel guilty about what she was having to do since I saw how exhausted she was whenever she came home.
Even in a new world the ability that paperwork had to sap every single ounce of mental energy from someone remained, and even in a world with magic it was still such a laborious and boring thing to have to do.
Yet it remained simply because it was in the nature of most mortals to crave structure and abide by rules that helped keep things pieced together, and as the mortals chosen to govern over a large amount of others we had to do a hell of a lot of paperwork.
It took me a few nights to convince Jahi to give me half of what I had used to do, and even then I had only managed it because I used a little trick with Lust Mana I had learned recently whilst we were in bed, causing my wife to react just a little bit harder than normal as I took the reins from her.
Obviously I wanted to help her and alleviate the burden she carried for all of us back here in the house, but as I stared at the umpteenth report on crop health, yield, approximations and estimations on how long it would remain good for and how much was likely to spoil this week, I couldn’t help but sigh and rub at my temples.
It was... a bit grating to realize that I would be far more content to simply be pregnant again rather than do any of this, and that included having to care for children now whilst I was going through all of the physical shenanigans of pregnancy.
Especially since Mother was promising that having a child with Jahi would be far harsher on my body than the five pups I had borne for Anput, which was rather incredible to think about since... well, one would assume five pups would outweigh one Demon child, but... apparently not.
"How’s it going?"
She almost allowed the teapot and plate to clatter to the floor when I gave her a deep kiss, and when I gave her lower half a sufficient amount of loving she moaned softly and ’glared’ at me like usual, though she let me pull her down onto my lap when she set her offerings onto my desk.
Having a horny and hungry Vampire kissing me with such blatant need when she usually was so reserved was making all of this worthwhile, and feeling her need pressing against my belly as she sank further onto my lap was just euphoric.
We were mid kiss when we heard the familiar pitter patter of feet coming towards my office, and although I was hungry for her too she just pulled away and got up, keeping her back to the door as she tried desperately to calm her ’dragon’.
"Mama! Mother Leone!"
Astra rushed on in and dove into my lap with a grin, while Zariah crept inside and looked around at the desk curiously, her eyes moving across the various bits of paper with intrigue and a bit of hope as she too came to climb onto my lap.
"Mother Leone? Why’re your ears so red?"
Patting Astra’s head and chuckling, I leaned down and ’whispered’ "Because she got caught doing something naughty~!", which made Astra - likely because of her already ’understanding’ a small amount about these things - grin as she wiggled around on my lap, turning to face the Vampire and watching as she let out a cough.
Meanwhile Zariah tilted her head and innocently asked "Then was Mama punishing Mother Leone? You punish us when we’re naughty...", a hint of indignance in her tone that seemed at odds with her usual shyness.
"I will, later. Now, what brought my two youngest pups around, hm~?"
"Ooh! Mama, we heard you were doing boring things, so we came to cheer you up! Mother said you might want us to come cheer you up!"
The gleam of mischief was very strong in Astra’s pinkish eyes, and even as I ruffled her ears she just grinned and added "But if Mother Leone was doing that instead, we can go play!", which I almost asked her to do instead.
"Could we help, Mama?"
Zariah’s question quelled that desire though since my shy pup was still staring curiously at the papers, and when I ruffled her ears too she reached for one, her eyes darting across the words before she gave this adorable little frown.
"Crop... spoilage? Why’re you reading about this, Mama? This seems boring."
It was Leone who took that lifeline to say "Because your Mama was the one in charge of these sorts of things before she got pregnant with you five. Now that you all are growing up, she can get back to helping Mommy Jahi with this work.", though when Astra continued to grin at her my Vampire wife just blushed and looked away.
"Sadly I can’t sit in here and just read about how heroes adventure around and slay mighty dragons, my little pup. Mama has to arrange a tribute to the Demon Clans so that we can maintain this prosperous friendship and partnership that we have."
It was something that Zariah partially understood, so she just furrowed her brow and began to reread the paper like she was somehow going to find an answer for me, and I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that she had taken a paper from the finished stack just yet...