Chapter 2035: Crazed Gals

She stepped barefoot into the poison. Serpents wound around her ankles and climbed her legs, disappearing beneath her clothes before their heads emerged at her collar.

One sank its fangs into her neck.

Veshara’s hand tightened around the chimney as another bit the woman’s shoulder. The assassin tipped her head to give the first serpent more room, closed her eyes, and released a long, contented breath.

"Better."

"Who let this crazed bitch out of the asylum?! What the fuck is wrong with her?!"

"Kitsara!!!"

The dogkin’s outraged cry snapped her attention toward the wall. Kitsara came racing around the herb beds with Blossom still at her heels.

"Bad girls don’t get to run from their punishment!!"

"Then you’ll have to chase someone else, for I am the bestest of girls~"

"[Phantom Parade]!"

Kitsara’s copies scattered across the lawn, each blowing their pursuer a kiss.

"Use that wonderful nose of yours to sniff me out, pupster~"

Blossom stopped chasing the images. She closed her eyes, drew one breath through her nose, and turned toward the bench beside Aurora’s pots.

"[Umbral Step]!"

The dogkin vanished through a blur of void magic. Kitsara had barely looked over her shoulder when Blossom appeared beside her and caught her around the waist, hauling her away from the path to the house.

"These ones don’t even smell like Kitsara! They don’t have the foul stench of a nasty woman!"

"W-wait!"

Keeping the foxkin tucked against her side, Blossom plucked a broad wooden plant marker off the bench.

*SMACK!*

The makeshift paddle landed across Kitsara’s skirt with a crack that interrupted Vex’s next incantation.

"Kya! Hubby! Your wife is being assaulted!"

"Blossom is not to be messed with!!"

*SMACK!*

Kitsara’s protest broke into helpless laughter, her copies scattering into light while Blossom brandished the plant marker at her.

"And Blossom is not a mutt! She does not leave her scent on walls! She only releases such fluids when on the toilet!!"

"Or when my lord husband’s fingers are caressing you between your thighs," Kitsara corrected.

"That’s a different kind of fluid!! Blossom rarely has such accidents!"

*SMACK!*

"Kya!"

Veshara’s shoulders began shaking.

Did Black exclusively stick his cock into lunatics?

The swordswomen were bleeding, the healer was blessing seeds, and their quiet companion was being eaten by her own snakes for relaxation purposes. Nobody seemed concerned about any of it.

"Why are you all so crazy...?"

Another clash shook the roof beneath her. Veshara caught the chimney, grinning so widely her cheeks had begun to hurt.

"Why are you so much fun?"

...

Inside the mansion, dwarves were carrying their cases into the adjoining rooms while Quinlan held the gate for the last carts.

<She’s made a mistake and revealed herself,> Black Fang informed them all. <Watching the garden.>

<Which part?>

<Me.>

Warm amusement filled him. <I can hardly blame her.>

<I suspected this might draw a reaction from any watching spies.>

<A most noble sacrifice. If only you didn’t enjoy it.>

Brokk joined him at the curtained windows.

"Could you begin with the concealment?" he asked her. "I’d like my women to enjoy the garden without performing for an audience the entire time you’re working."

"We brought what you asked for."

Her artificers began fitting wards to contain the construction noise, replacing Quinlan’s temporary wind barrier. At the windows, new panes let him see the garden clearly while showing anyone outside only the reflection of the trees.

Through the glass, he watched Sera kneel beside her flower bed.

<How much longer would you like us to keep this up? I don’t mind pretending to be a crazy gal, but blessing the seeds over and over again is too much even for me.>

<Can you manage another large burst?>

<For you? Of course~>

Once the last cart cleared his gate, Quinlan closed it and led Brokk into the central room. With a palm against the floor, he drove his earth magic into the foundations, thickening the footings and extending new pillars down into the rock.

"[Skyshatter]!"

Ayame’s shout reached him as his own expenditure rose. Healing light flooded the garden again, accompanied by a roar from Serika’s furnace.

Their laughter filled the link while he worked, and affection swelled in his chest. His ridiculous, brilliant women were giving him the freedom to rebuild this place around them. He wanted them to love coming home to it.

At his will, the floor stones separated and stacked themselves against the wall. Quinlan compressed the exposed earth around the new supports, opening a broad chamber beneath the room.

Brokk leaned over the edge to inspect the pillars.

"That’ll hold. How do you want it divided?"

"Leave a chamber by the ramp for my gates. Large enough for loaded carts, so visitors from Iskaris can arrive unseen. Farther in, I want private workshops for Kaelira and Aurora, secure stores, and somewhere to hold meetings away from guests."

Brokk studied the space beside the supports. "And if the house above is attacked?"

"A refuge with supplies and room for the wounded. We’ll also need a hidden passage to another exit. My household should have a way out even if I’m unconscious or can’t open a gate."

She took a piece of chalk from her belt and began sketching the room divisions on the floor beside him.

He shaped a ramp down for her builders, then reached deeper with his magic. By the time the first carts rolled into the chamber, another floor was opening beneath it.

...

Later that afternoon, the concealment wards were working, and the garden finally stopped exploding.

His women had traded their weapons and tools for drinks. Through the rear window, Quinlan watched Sera finish healing Ayame’s arm, then turn to a still-seething Iris.

Ayame came inside with Serika, leaving the others to enjoy their hard-earned rest.

"It already looks different," Ayame observed, inspecting the newly fitted doors.

"Wait until you see downstairs."

"How far did you dig?"

"Just a bit. Didn’t want to make a scene in case the dragon Sovereign can feel the land similar to how I can."

"We believe that to be enhanced by Rosie being the land’s protector," Serika said. "If Miss Dragon did, then the things you’ve done should’ve already alerted her."

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Rosie blessed me with a truly unique and unfair sovereign advantage, or maybe Miss Dragon is just an ancient creature who is asleep. We need to remain careful," Quinlan replied.

He opened [Warp Gate] against a clear stretch of wall in the hall. Ronan stepped through, took one look at him, and broke into a broad grin.

"Good to see you, boss!"

"You too, Ronan."

He clasped his old architect’s hand, pulling him close enough to clap his shoulder.

"Hello, Ronan."

With Ayame now beside Quinlan, arms folded beneath her chest, Ronan’s smile became a little more careful.

"Lady Ayame."

Serika’s cheerful wave drew a warmer greeting from him.

"Another house, huh?"

"Think of it as our vacation home."

"But it is not a vacation home," Ayame scoffed. "It is our forward operation base into the world of Thalorind."

Brokk passed them with a pair of craftsmen, drawing Ronan’s attention to the new window frames and the runes being worked into the adjoining doorway.

"I see you’ve got some excellent people working here. You certainly don’t need me telling them how to build a vacation crib-" Ayame’s bloodlust made the man rethink his words with utmost urgency. "-I mean forward operation base."

"I concur. Why is he here?" Ayame asked, eyes narrowed into fiery slits.

Patting his beloved samurai’s shoulder to lessen her desire to kill the man, Quinlan merely grinned at Ronan in response.

Ronan glanced toward the ramp leading below, then returned the grin.

"You saved a room for sex dungeon number two, boss?"

Ayame stamped her foot.

"I knew it!"

She turned on Quinlan so quickly that her hair swept across his arm.

"You need to choose your next words very carefully."

Quinlan looked down at her, then gave Ronan a solemn nod.

The architect straightened and saluted him.

"Quin!"

"What? I said no words."

The murderous glare in her blue eyes sent Serika into a fit of laughter. She came over to slip an arm around Ayame’s shoulders, drawing the fuming samurai against her side.

"Come on. Let the boys have some fun."

"You’re encouraging them!"

"A little~"

Ayame let herself be steered toward the garden, though she kept looking back at Quinlan with enough bite to make his grin quite difficult to maintain.

"Pervert... Hmph..."