“Have you considered the ramifications of me marrying Mercy?”

  Lin says “You mean you taking over her kingdom? Yes, we have a plan for that.”

  “That isn’t what I mean. Did you not stop to consider how me marrying two humans is going to look to others?”

  Myria says “Oh!!”

  Lin says “What does that matter?”

  Mercy says “Others are going to think that Ash is biased in favor of humans. The beastmen might be okay since he is also marrying Myria, but others won’t be.”

  Myria says “Actually, only my tribe will be reassured. Each tribe basically considers themselves a separate race, so the other tribes will not be happy.”

  Mercy says “So, you are saying that Ash needs to take a wife from every tribe to secure their loyalty?”

  “No! Absolutely not! That is not even open for consideration!”

  Myria says “That would help, but isn’t really necessary. The tribes all respect strength, and Ash is the strongest in the world. This is enough to secure their loyalty. Him only marrying me will only lead to some complaining. At least, for the tribes that have already joined him. The others, they are a different story.”

  “I already have a plan for the rest of the tribes. I just need the time to execute it.”

  Lin says “So, then we need to worry about the elves and the beast clans?”

  “The beast clans revere the elves as gods, as long as I take an elven wife they should be satisfied.”

  Lin says “Well, if we only need to add an elf, then that is easy enough.”

  Myria says “Is that going to be enough though? To make things even, technically he should marry two elves and another beastwoman.”

  Mercy says “I’m sorry. I never thought about how much chaos this could cause.”

  “It’s alright, I didn’t either. It was actually Stillwater who pointed out this problem.”

  Lin says “Are you sure he wasn’t just maneuvering to get you for Brightfire?”

  “Yes, I am sure. This is his job as Prime Minister. He has to point out the things that I miss, even if it will anger me.”

  Mercy says “Ash is right. As a ruler, having someone who isn’t afraid to point out your mistakes is very important!”

  Lin says “Do you have someone like that?”

  Mercy says “Too many! As a new queen, everyone just loves pointing out my mistakes!”

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  “Better for them to point out your mistakes than to try and use them against you.”

  Mercy says “Oh, there have been those people too, but Zamart is really good at taking care of them for me.”

  “That’s good. How is he doing?”

  Lin says “Ash, are you intentionally trying to go off topic?”

  “Um…”

  Lin says “That’s what I thought. Getting back to the issue, we can worry about balanced numbers later. We need to decide what we need to do right now. Do we delay Ash marrying Mercy, or do we add someone else to balance things more?”

  Mercy says “I won’t comment since I have a high stake in this.”

  “Wait, what do you mean about balancing numbers later?!”

  Myria says “Well, we could just add an elf right now. That would calm both the elves and the beast clans. Wouldn’t that be fine? That would be two human wives and two non-human wives. That should quiet people down, at least for now.”

  Lin says “I agree, that is the best plan for now. The only question left is who the elf should be. The only candidates I can think of would be Brightfire, Silverleaf, or Core. Ash, do you have a preference?”

  “Definitely not Core, she is too young. Out of the other two, I have a better relationship with Brightfire.”

  Lin says “I also like Brightfire and she has been pining for you for a long time.”

  Myria says “I don’t know her as well, but I don’t have any problems with her. I want to get to know her before we set anything for sure.”

  Lin says “I agree. We need to all sit down and talk. It is important that we are all in agreement and on the same page. We need to make sure we can all get along without any conflicts. This is going to be hard enough without us fighting amongst ourselves.”

  Myria says “Personally, I think having more hands to help keep Ash out of trouble will be a good thing.”

  Mercy says “Sorry, wait. Does this mean that I get to marry Ash? Is it already decided?!”

  “This is going a lot faster than planned, but yes. That is, if you still want to.”

  Mercy says “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because you now know you are going to have to share me with three other women.”

  Lin says “At least three. Probably more later.”

  “No, we won’t need to add any more! Adding Brightfire should be enough to keep the majority of people from causing a fuss. Those that still do, we can just ignore.”

  Lin says “That is okay, for now. However, that isn’t going to last.”

  “What do you mean?!”

  Lin says “You can conquer the empire using the military, but they can’t rule it for you. You will need to marry someone from the empire, preferably the emperor’s daughter. To keep the current balance, that will mean adding another non-human as well. So, at least two more further down the line.”

  Myria says “The other non-human should be a beastwoman, but not from the bunny tribe. Maybe from one of the cat tribes to bring them in?”

  “No, I have a plan for the cat tribes so there is no need. Wait! I am not agreeing to this! I will handle the empire without marrying anyone! Most of the nobles will be dealt with and as long as I treat the common people well there will be no problem.”

  Lin says “Maybe not while you are alive, but what about after? If you don’t have someone important from the empire as a wife, they will revolt as soon as you die. We will have no hope of keeping things together.”

  Mercy says “She is right about that. The empire you are building will be new and fragile. Any revolt that succeeds will lead to more, it will tear everything down.”

  “Wait, you are arguing for me to take more wives?!”

  Mercy says “No, it is not my place to, yet. I am just agreeing that without you things will quickly fall apart. You need to make plans to prevent that and marrying the right women would be an important step.”

  Lin says “From my reading I know that the peninsula used to be a unified empire and the current empire has dreamed of recreating that for a long time. The fact that someone else is going to accomplish it is not going to sit well with them. Of course, that only applies to the people in power, the common people won’t care.”

  “So, you are telling me that I either need to marry someone I don’t know or kill everyone with power in the empire? I am leaning towards option two!”