World of Women - World of Women – V5 – Chapter 9

“All we’re saying is that we’re worried about you.”  Madison concluded, taking a breath and then drinking her cup of tea down in a single swing before letting the maid pour more.

“You’re telling me this is an intervention?” I asked, feeling a bit awkward.

“It’s not like you’ve done anything wrong, honey…” Morgan began.

“Yes, your unwillingness to sleep with your daughters is unreasonable.” Talitha cut in.

Morgan shot Talitha a glare, but Talitha cooly sat back and took a sip of her tea, seemingly unaffected.

“We all know about your past.” Rose picked up in the silence.  “We know about the visions you had of that other world.”

“It’s more than just visions.”

“Let’s not get into whether your memories are visions, or another life, or whatever.” Morgan cut in.

Although I had long since told everyone about my origins, they had some difficulty accepting that. Some thought it was something I had imagined, while others thought it was a trace memory from when I absorbed the demon lord’s inheritance. Most had settled on them being random visions or dreams, probably associated with the stuff that happened to me in Matahari. I had long since given up arguing with them about it. The only ones who truly believed me were Becky and Ashley, two women who were absent from this meeting.

“You want me to promise to sleep with my daughters?” I asked.

The girls all looked at each other, but it was Madison who stepped forward. “You’ve already promised to do this. You’ve already said all of that before. It’s past that point now.”

As she spoke, Jordan looked away in embarrassment. Although she was our child, my traits were more dominant so she looked more like Lexy than her mother. However, the long legs, willowy body, and pale skin were all there, even if she had dark eyes and hair.

I let out a sigh. “Who am I supposed to impregnate?”

The women seemed to relax a bit as they exchange yet another look. I wish I could figure out what they were saying with all of those looks. It was somewhat irritating like they were having a conversation that I wasn’t privy to.

“Alyssa has been waiting for the longest.” Morgan immediately vouched for her daughter.

Alyssa blushed slightly, but she didn’t say anything. Although she was my oldest daughter, she was also the least seductive. She tended to wear big shirts and baggy pants that hid her body, and her hair was usually uncombed. In a world of mostly women who all tried to look their best to get laid, a girl like her was considered ugly. This didn’t mean she wasn’t attractive in a frumpy way. She’d be a more natural type, rejecting her mother’s dresses and makeup. I thought she’d come out as a lipstick lesbian for a while, but she still seemed to be holding onto me making her pregnant.

I suppose it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t found someone else before me given how she sabotaged her looks. Her mother claimed that it was my fault. Alyssa had never needed to try since it was all but assumed I would have her, and after not doing it, as the first and oldest, her feelings had been hurt the most, with Alyssa wondering if she wasn’t good enough. I told her many times that this wasn’t the case, but actions spoke louder than words.

“What about Anya?” I asked.

“Ahem… Anya found a young boy.” Rose seemed a bit embarrassed. “She hasn’t gotten pregnant yet, but they are willing to try again.”

I was a bit surprised by the news. Anya had been waiting for me too, but she was a bit less introverted than her sister. Learning that Anya had started a relationship with a boy left me feeling a bit awkward. It was probably better for her this way. Certainly, genetically, it was better if all of my family wasn’t inbred. Rose was already my aunt, so that made my daughters already incestuous a generation in. It wasn’t like the current culture worried about such things all that much. I knew I was just using it all as an excuse, and so did they. After all, when it came to my sisters and mother, I had never hesitated.

“What boy?” I asked.

“He’s… my age… I-I’m his first.” Anya declared, a challenging expression on her face.

“That’s good.” I nodded. “You should have a 50/50 chance of having a male, so there is no need for him to seek out another woman.”

“I-I’m willing to accept, a couple of wives.” Anya’s face turned red.

“Hold him to it,” I responded, even though I knew my words sounded hypocritical.

I was a special case though. I could make male babies at a much higher rate than other men, plus my blood held the cure for the demonic blood and the Y-linked infertility. If I didn’t have lots of children, then there was no point in me ever having been brought into that world.

“I suppose we might as well be clear.” Talita cut in before anyone else could speak. “I brought Amor and Gloria was the intention of having you impregnate them.”

I blinked. “You want me? A bule?”

“You have males at a higher rate than other men.” She responded.

“Um… they’re my children. They will also have a male at a high rate…”

“Says you! But out of the four women from Matahari you impregnated, only one of them had men! I wish to increase the chance even greater.”

“Can’t you… ahem… the triplets do it?” I glanced over at the three boys who were only partially listening.

Each one of them had a book in front of them and was reading while seemingly ignoring this intervention. Strangely, they were each reading a different book of the same series.

“The triplets will get their opportunity to sew their wild oats. I won’t have them ending up like their… ahem like Prince Caleb did. Furthermore, many in Matahari find their lighter skin tones… to be a desirable trait… as long as the child doesn’t have too many bule features!”

“Jordan would also like to sleep with brother.” Madison declared, grabbing her daughter and holding her forward like she was on display.

“Mom…” Jordan tried to push her mom away, looking embarrassed.

“Do we need to say something?” Hannah asked.

“Okay, So Alyssa, Jordan, Lexy, Gloria, and Amor. If I sleep with them, you will give me a break?”

“You don’t need to be so callous about it.” Madison frowned. “They’re just the oldest girls. They won’t be the only ones. You have daughters from 3 to fifteen who are also interested in their daddy.”

“Lyra? You’ve been quiet. What about Raven, where is she?”

“Raven… has decided she doesn’t like men.” Lyra looked embarrassed.

“What?”

“She’s a WRA!” Lyra lowered her head. “I’m sorry, she wants nothing to do with her father.”

“A WRA?” It was Madison who spoke up. “They’re practically terrorists here on Valiant. They want to undermine our entire existence. They’d sell out every man!”

“I know!” Lyra looked teary-eyed. “I thought she was just being withdrawn, but I found out by sneaking through her room that she was going to a WRA rally. I failed as a mother.”

Lyra started to sob. A few of the women present went to calm her down, although a few others seemed to agree with her sentiment.

“Raven is free to make her own decisions,” I stated. “The WRA seems to form wherever there are women. Their activities are outlaws in Valiant, but that only attracts the young who wish to rebel from their parents.”

Lyra sniffled but nodded as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. “I tried to show her the love my mother never gave me. Perhaps I coddled her too much.”

I only had a little impression of Lyra’s baby. She was officially considered Caleb’s child, but Talitha rejected her as a bule since she didn’t have a trace of Mataharin features. Most people believe that I adopted her as a daughter in name, and most also believed that her true father was dead. There was a bit of a tragic love story there. It had been spread that Lyra fancied me and her mother forced her to go to the Matahari to breed with a prince. Since she came back from Matahari pregnant, the assumption was that Raven was truly his kid, despite what the Queen declared.

As a result, when Raven went to school, she was bullied. We had told her the truth, but it was hard to explain soul magic to a twelve-year-old, and it was unlikely she believed us over her peers. She became withdrawn and started wearing black and usually hid in the corner. With some of my daughters actively fawning at me like Anya and Alyssa, her attempts to avoid me were why I had no other impression of her.

As for her being part of the WRA, I wasn’t that upset. I had many children, and they were all bound to go off in their own directions. The WRA wasn’t exactly big on our island, but there were still those who felt like men were given too much for the level they contributed to society. In their minds, women had built the world and were the ones capable of having children. A single man could impregnate a thousand women, so why would they want the male population to increase?

Either way, their official meetings were banned on the island, but that wouldn’t stop troublemakers from troublemaking, not that I would call my daughter Raven a troublemaker.

“Very well then,” I responded. “It will be the five agreed upon. I will get them pregnant when I return.”

“Tcht,” Madison growled. “You’re just coming up with another delay. I can’t believe… wait, what do you mean to return?”

“I’m going to be going soon,” I responded. “On a trip.”

“A trip?” Lyra asked. “You don’t take trips. What trip?”

“Is that a problem?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What they mean to say…” Rose cut in. “-is that you have never left this island since its formation. What suddenly brings on the desire to leave now?”

“I never took trips before because it was determined to be too dangerous,” I responded. “There were too many countries that want to get a hold of me. Back when I was running the country, there was also the fear of assassination. However, enough time has passed now. I have many male heirs and Valiant has started to build its military outside of Mataharin aid. We’re not as vulnerable now as we were back then, and I don’t believe I will be in as much danger as in the past.”

“Brother, what is bringing this on?” Hannah asked.

All of the older women were looking at me suspiciously. Their children looked at the older ones, and seeing their distrust, also wore similar faces. I couldn’t help but shrug.

“Why does there need to be something up?” I asked innocently. “I just had a desire to travel, suddenly.”

Hannah’s eyes didn’t blink as she leaned even closer to me. “Suspicious…”

“Very suspicious.” I jumped as I realized Lexy was looking from the other side with an identical expression.

“I have things I need to do!” I declared.

“You don’t do things…” Lexy declared.

“The only thing you should be doing is your daughter!” Hannah shot back.

The pressure on both girls was too much. With a sigh, I lowered my head.

“It’s the castle.”

Hannah blinked. “What castle?”

“You don’t mean…” Brooke, who had been standing by the door relatively silent the entire time suddenly perked up.

“The demon lord castle. The final legacy of the demon lords has been found.” A voice came from the door.

Brooke stepped aside as two women walked into the room. Ash and Becky couldn’t be more dissimilar. Ash was sporty with short hair and a boyish charm. Becky was extremely feminine, with makeup and a dress. Yet, they both gave off an aura that instantly made the room feel a bit darker. The children instinctively drew away, and the other women looked around uncomfortably.

None of the women had ever grown comfortable around these two. They were both women who were supposed to be dead. They had been possessed by demons, who kept their bodies alive, but at the expense of their souls. The demons inside of them were destroyed, but that didn’t mean they were normal once again. There was something in their eyes, a swirling Abyss, that put other women’s backs up.

“You two are aware?” I asked.

“It’s like with Matahari. Once the entrance was exposed, we became able to sense it.” Ash declared.

“Although, not as well as when were demons.” Becky sighed. “Many things were easier when I was a demon.”

“Do you regret being cleansed by Clyburn?” Ash asked playfully.

“Wh-what do you mean by that?” Becky turned red.

“Hehe… a decade later and you’re still not honest with your body.” Ash wore a perverted expression on her face as she grabbed the other girl’s chest.

There was another reason the other girls felt uncomfortable. Although they could ignore the aura they gave off, one thing they couldn’t ignore was that Ash and Becky didn’t age. Much like Lilith, they looked the same now as they did at the moment of their deaths. While the other girls were in their 30s, Becky and Ash looked like a pair of high school girls. They were too youthful to make the older women feel comfortable, and to children who looked their age, they were too strange and knowledgeable. As a result, the pair ended up hanging with each other, ignoring most of the other girls.

“Girls… can we focus?” I asked. “How bad is it?”

“I’m more curious how Clyburn obtained this information,” Ash asked as Becky tried to keep her from squeezing her breasts. “We spent a week trying to confirm it and came straight to you once we did. Not that you’re easy to get a hold of. We weren’t invited to the party.”

Hannah sniffed. “You two are crazy. My brother doesn’t need crazy women in his life.”

“Hehe… maybe.” Becky laughed after finally elbowing Ash in the gut to end her assault. “I’ve heard they call us the witches of Valiant. Some countries have chosen not to cause trouble simply for fear that we’ll curse them.”

I had heard similar rumors, but I had never commented on them. The stories around all of our lives were filled with as many falsehoods as there were truths. That was the consequence of being a living legend. It was sad that the reality didn’t meet the legend. I was just a man who happened to have the right seed. Then again, the hero from back then, the one who fought Demon Lord Lilith… he had just been a man in a woman’s world. I wondered how he’d feel knowing he became some kind of hero of ages.

“You’re not planning to leave without us, are you?” Ash’s expression turned serious, and as soon as she spoke, Becky’s eyes snapped to me as well.

Before I could answer, Mom spoke up. “He’s not leaving at all.”

“Excuse me?” I blinked.

“The demon lord’s castle?” Morgan responded. “The last two times you dealt with one of those, you very nearly died. There is no reason for you to get involved in this weird occult stuff. You just need to stay in Valiant and…?”

“And what?” I cut her off. “Make babies?”

She crossed her arms, but she didn’t respond, making it clear I was on the mark.

“Clyburn, we’re just saying, maybe you should think about this. It doesn’t have to be you. Wasn’t there that other woman? Lilith?” Rose tried to speak diplomatically. “Just send the information to Mia and Lilith.”

Drake shifted at the mention of his mother. Drake had mostly been raised by his aunties, as his mother had dedicated herself to being Lilith’s servant. Over the years, she had only come to visit him a few dozen times. It was clear he was conflicted when it came to her. Rose, Morgan, and Madison had been the constants in his life, taking care of him while she was off abroad.

I shook my head. “If Lilith takes that power, she could still have it extracted from her. Only I can take the power and destroy it.”

Although I said those words, the group wore a variety of complex expressions. Most of them hadn’t been there. Most of them hadn’t seen the castles. They hadn’t dealt with me absorbing the legacy. They hadn’t seen the demons at their most terrifying. Those that did have haunted expressions on their face. Brooke was someone who should have understood best, so I glanced at her for backup.

However, instead of support, I saw reluctance in her eyes. “I don’t know, Clyburn. There are no more demons, right? Diba Monic only managed to raise two of them, and they’re purified, right? If that’s the case, then what does it matter?”

I shook my head. “You don’t get it. Demons can be summoned again. The day of WRATH was just one event. The same thing could happen anywhere on the planet. More demons could be summoned. They might have already been summoned.”

“If the demons were already summoned, don’t you think we’d be aware of it?” Rose asked carefully. “After all, the day of WRATH is still a day that shocks the world…”

“Only because men were targeted as well.” I shot back. “It doesn’t take a big open event like that. It could be some small tribe just disappearing off the map.”

It was Cornelia’s time to shiver. Of anyone present, she had been traumatized by the day of WRATH more than anyone. She had also been there at the second demon lord’s castle. She had seen the evil of demons. I looked at her for support next.

Cornelia’s expression grew steely. “I’m an advisor of Valiant. I have to see things from what is best for this country. Your leaving could cause an international incident. If you died…”

She stopped, and a look of pain crossed her face. Several of the other girls reacted to that as well.

“Is that what this is about?” I asked. “You’re afraid I can’t handle it?”

“Cly-“ Rose began.

“I’m a grown man now,” I responded. “I fought to liberate the men of Amaryllis so that we could be free to choose our path. Now, the lot of you are comfortable, so you think you can restrict my freedoms here?”

“It’s not like that!” Madison cried tearfully.

“Jenji is out there.” I declared. “You may not remember her, but she remembers all of you. If she gets her hands on the inheritance, then she will end this world. I owe it to Char- I owe it to this world that I stop this. It’s… why I was brought here. I need to finish what I started.”

After my words, there was a long silence in the room. I knew that my words didn’t reach all of them. Most of them didn’t believe in Jenji, or Charlie, or any of it. They might love me, but I was pretty certain a few of them just thought my mind broke. If it didn’t break after the Day of Wrath, then it broke when I was in a comatose state in Matahari.

For those who didn’t believe I was Caleb, they decided that after the airship crash, I had spent those months in a coma. Even though Brooke, Lyra, and Kemala all collaborated on pieces of my story, there was a difference between accepting a story and believing it. Deep down, many of them believed I was a broken man focusing on fantasies to escape the harsh reality. Maybe they were right.

“Okay.” A voice spoke up, causing every eye to turn to Morgan.

“Mom?” Madison looked in confusion.

“You should go,” Mom stated.

“You’re telling him that? You?” Hannah looked on in disbelief.

Talitha spoke up. “Morgan, perhaps we should talk…”

Morgan shook her head. “This isn’t about us. It’s not our decision to make. It’s Clyburn’s.”

“But…” Madison tried to speak, but Morgan raised her hand.

“You’ve noticed it, haven’t you?” Morgan asked. “The last few years, Clyburn…”

“He hasn’t been with us.” Mako declared, and when everyone looked at her, she jerked and blushed. “I’m just saying what you’re all thinking!”

Others wanted to argue with her, but they found themselves falling into thought instead.

“I-I’ve been here,” I responded awkwardly.

“It’s not like you’re not loving…” Kemala spoke up. “It’s just… it feels like a part of you is missing. At first, I thought I could fill that missing piece. However, every day I see you, that hole inside you seems to grow. It’s like….”

“You’re looking for something,” Lyra responded, lowering her eyes. “Or waiting for someone.”

“We want you back. All of you.” Morgan continued, glancing at Talitha. “That’s why he needs to go and find whatever it is that is missing. I don’t know if it’s this castle, or this person no one can remember. I just want my son to be happy. So, even if it hurts, I will let you go.”

Talitha looked awkward for a moment. “It seems, I underestimated you, Morgan. You’re a wise woman… when it comes to Clyburn.”

“Hmph! That’s the only intelligence I need.” Morgan straightened herself.

Their awkward peacemaking caused the rest of the girls to break out in giggles. It wasn’t that it was funny so much as that the stress had been high, and this had finally allowed them to release some of it. It also seemed that all the girls had agreed to let me go, as there were no more protests.

“So, Clyburn will get our girls pregnant when he returns.” Madison nodded.

“He better,” Hannah responded, shooting me a dark look.

“Should we return to the party?” Morgan asked. “It will be Clyburn’s farewell party as well as Lexy’s birthday. Um… you two are invited as well.”

The last part was added as an awkward afterthought toward the two former demon women who had barged in.

“I might take you up on that offer.” Ash giggled. “Do you remember the last party we went to?”

“Didn’t the whole place burn down?” Becky responded.

The two girl’s words instantly made the other women a bit less comfortable. I coughed, trying to interject.

“Um… does anyone mind if I can put my clothes on now?”

Since they had sat me down and started their little intervention, I hadn’t redressed, so I had been sitting there naked the entire time.