Mona giggled out of the blue, again. After I granted her the title, it was her “new normal”. She gained a lot upon her promotion. Most specifically, the {Human Royalty} Perk from Roswaria’s divine sponsor and twenty percent more Perks on top of the HP boost. Now that the System gave half as many Perks to each person, the value of that specific Royal Perk doubled.

I thought cutting Perks in half was a dick move by Tuisto and Loki, but I could understand their rationale. Now that people needed half as much Exp to level up, they had to cut on some benefits of the levels to balance the lowered amounts of energy the souls gave. Yet I believed it was too much. The game was skewed towards the house, and almost nobody was aware of that.

The girl standing next to me giggled out of the blue, again. At least out there in the tunnels of the Labyrinth, she restrained her giddiness. I met her eyes and she grinned from ear to ear.

"Dear brother, do you like me?" She asked, fishing for a compliment.

I couldn't help but chuckle at how silly she behaved. It was endearing now that she gave up on anything romantic. "Yes, dear sister. You are one of the four important people in this world to me."

She squealed and latched to my arm. She quieted down and closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling. "Thank you," she whispered.

I would like to think I did the right thing. Also that the exchange was a fair one. If I had to guess, a voice at the back of her mind made her think I made up the story about her being a [Princess] to reject her in a very roundabout way. But now that the System corroborated her origins and wiped away that small shard of doubt, she had a foolish grin stamped on her face.

Mona grew up hearing about me from the maids and their lewd plans to become a [Prince]'s lover. The environment may not mold the person, that was up to debate, but it can certainly narrow down the life choices one may consider. To the daughter of a milkmaid, her choices were to either become a servant in the Palace or do like the maids and gun for the Prince who gave her lots of attention. The rational choice coincided with the emotional one.

Then I reject her advance and drop the fate of an Empire on her shoulders. "Daughter of the Emperor" was a curse in the surface Realm above us. Overwhelmed she needed time to accept her new reality.

The Princess latched to my arm, giggled out of the blue, again. Brother, mentor, goddess, sponsor, drill sergeant, former love interest, I knew a lot of roles in her life were filled by me. Broadening her horizons would allow her to interact with more people and expand this network, reducing her dependency on me.

But wasn't it true for Madge as well? I looked at her and she returned with a sympathetic smile. I could tell she felt no jealousy about my relationship with Mona. I did my best to reassure her she was the only one who would ever hold my body, heart, and soul at the same time. I didn't even think of her as Lorna's reincarnation as I wasn't sure which one of them was it. And I knew I had no way to tell.

Fate would punish me greatly if I tried to cheat in our little game. It didn't matter. I'd already won this round. The empathic reading I had on their feelings, courtesy of the Mind magic Perks I picked left no room for doubt.

"It's unfair," I mumbled.

"Uh-hum. It is," Mona agreed without context. "What is unfair?"

"That Madge doesn't feel like a [Queen]."

Both girls reacted as if they had been electrocuted.

"But I'm not..."

"Yeah! She deserves it too! Do your magic, 'Percy'!" She slapped me on the back.

I changed my displayed title to [King-in-Exile]. "Madge, I got a quest to revive Raswaria. But even if I do, the Royal Family would remain incomplete. We have Rhiannon, me, and a spritzy [Princess], but there's a vacancy that sorely needs a capable person."

"Oh, ho-ho-ho!" Mona broke down in a fit of giggles and cackles. She couldn't make up her mind, not even about what types of laughter.

Yet another example of how the circus fleas never learned how high they could jump and just assumed they couldn't get out of the matchbox.

"We've known each other since the day we were born," I let Mona behind and walked slowly forward. Madge was frozen in place as her emotions flooded and overflowed. She didn't move her eyes away from me. I reached her and knelt. "Do your heart harbor any doubt? Madge, please stand by my side as [Queen] of Raswaria," I said and followed up with the million platinum coins question.

The camp in a dead-end tunnel of the Labyrinth was silence if not by the sharp shrill of a hyperexcited sister-priestess-sister-in-law.

I sensed no airflow near Madge's nostrils. Then she sniffled.

I raised my hand. She took it and pulled me back on my feet. Then she launched herself at my neck, wrapping her arms and hungrily seeking my lips.

"And by the powers invested in me by the Groom-Goddess-Brother-Sister-So-Confusing, I now declare you Husband? ...and [Queen]," Mona shouted, then added as she wondered, "[...in-Exile?] What the hell? Is it broken?"

Wacky priestess-sister.

I sensed the title appearing in Madge's {Appraise} results but didn't stop kissing for a while.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"How are you feeling?" She didn't answer coherently, just babbled. "Nod if you are happy."

Madge dipped and bobbed her head like it would fall off the neck. Eventually, she said something intelligible. "Am I dreaming?"

Mona snorted, "About wedding Percival in the Labyrinth? Your imagination sucks, sister. No, dummy. It's real. I guess we are now one big family. My brother became my brother-in-law. Ugh," she grunted and held her head as if in pain.

"I'm a [Queen] now?" She continued, still confused.

"[Queen-in-Exile]," Mona corrected as she shoved me away to hug her adoptive sister. "Congratulations! I'm even not angry at you having the [Prince] all to yourself," she with certainty.

Slowly, Madge came back to her senses and celebrated with Mona as they giggled, squealed, and jumped together. "You're not. Well, then you won't mind if you stand watch while Percival and I consummate our marriage," she teased the tease.

Mona blushed as she clearly hadn't thought that far. "I don't... I mean, sure. He's your husband now, you go do husband and wife things. I'll be here, alone."

Madge laughed and tapped her cheek, "You're a big girl. You can do it."

The Empire would soon learn how important that moment was. We still had a long path ahead of us before we were ready to leave the Labyrinth. Thousands of monsters to slay. Kilometers upon kilometers of tunnels to descend and travel through.

And I got myself another kingdom to raise from the literal fucking ashes.

If I went back to Earth, I would pitch a reality show to either Netflix or DirecTV. "Fixer Upper Kingdom", it would be called. Or "Crown Flippers". It would be like those house flipper shows but with kingdoms instead.

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“We are going out to hunt more monsters, then you’re going to increase your levels to twenty and rank-up next time we camp. We’re going to train in armor then, as I believe you’ll all have the minimum Attribute values to wear your plate armor. Once you converted your Fast-growth points and gained another two on each of your Proficiencies, you’re going to fight with less support from me.”

I would hone these two girls into the best mortals this world had ever seen. In record time too.

Onward we went, delving deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth as I used my {Detect Monster} to lead us from pack to pack. Madge and Mona needed me to bail them out of a fight only once.

They were being overwhelmed by a bunch of Slender Trolls. These trolls were long and lanky like the Endermen from Minecraft, but they were half-muscle, half-bone. Their speed and physical strength were enormous and their long arms had a ridiculous reach. Worse, they fought in packs and their tactics involved presenting a wall of claws at their enemies. While the girls weakened them with their magic, the trolls encircled them and started to attack from the flanks.

I sent a throng of al-Mi'raj to the rescue, the horned bunnies {Zerg Rushing} the trolls and overwhelming them with sheer numbers and suicidal devotion to their task. The Slender Trolls were dumb as bricks and vicious as hell so they take great joy in slaughtering the bunnies. The girls had two sensible choices and several stupid ones. Either seize the opportunity and try to finish the trolls or disengage and regroup. I was happy they chose the right one as they walked away from the fight without turning their backs to the monsters.

“We’re punching a bit above our weight,” Madge said. “What should we do?”

I shrugged, “What would you do if I was not here? And dying is not an option.”

“Hit them with all we got?” She pondered.

“Yes. Against regenerating foes, a battle of attrition is the worst possible scenario. You should burn your MP and one-shot as many trolls as you can. Then you’ll pick the rest. But with me here, you did the right thing. Hearts and brain give the best critical multipliers. Go for it.”

They readied spell circles and went back onto the fray. Madge shot a {Force Spear}, a version of my favorite Javelin spell but with more oomph. She skewered two trolls across the chest, pinning them to the tunnel wall. Mona wreathed her staff in flames and bashed another troll’s head in. The roles were rather reversed regarding their Classes but I wouldn’t use that against them. What matters in a fight is to get out alive.

I kept the waves of summoned al’Mi-raj. What mattered now was to find a good nuke to use against enemies.

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I allowed them to raise one level almost every day. At the end of the second month of delving and fighting, the girls reached level sixty. I was extremely proud of them. They had reached a [Spellcaster] Proficiency above 350, Physical and Mental mastery of around three hundred, and a non-pick Proficiency on their weapons of two hundred. If they played smart, they could defeat almost anyone in the third rank. But the important thing was that they could survive an encounter with a fourth-rank, which most of my brothers were. And the first five or eight levels in a new rank were easy to get.

We were relaxing for a while as I attended to almost every whim of the girls as a reward when Madge asked a hairy question.

“What about the people up there on base camp? Do you think they told someone we left them behind?”

“Maybe if they had ways to contact others without making it public knowledge,” I replied. “If something happens to me, everyone there is dead. No noble House will shield them. If they go to the surface without me or leak through official channels that I am not with them, they’re dead and an expedition will be mounted to attempt to rescue me. Or they’ll just declare me dead and attempt to seize the Palace again.

“But the important takeaway is that they have no incentive to let people know I left on my own with the two of you. It would be their end.”

Base camp was away from my Detection range so I had no idea what was going on there. I also didn’t try to find out. As far as I cared, it would be good to have most of them killed. Just a few there were worthy of keeping alive, mostly the support staff.

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We went deeper in the Labyrinth until we met our goals about fifteen kilometers underneath the surface and two hundred kilometers to the west of the Imperial capital. After the girls reached level seventy-four in four months, I decided it was enough. The monsters that would give them good Exp were too dangerous and we'd almost wiped the Labyrinth underneath the Empire clean. On the surface, winter should be over and Spring already in full bloom.

I opened the {Sanctuary Gates} and the red Torii sprung to life, covering almost the whole tunnel.

"You've done well, sister and wife. Here's your reward."

Madge gasped, "The Matriarch Gates!"

In the last six centuries since the Dallas Visitor blew me up, the clergy came up with legends and lore about the Matriarch and her powers. The Torii gates were among the most sacred fixtures.

We went inside the comfortable meadow of the Sanctuary. Mona rolled on the grass, bubbly as always. She stopped and glared at me. "Why did we have to spend MONTHS sleeping on the hard rock of those gloomy endless tunnels if you could summon this! Sunlight, grass, TREES!"

"You needed to understand what it is like for normal people. And our delve had nothing less than what my brothers had, with much fewer worries about poison and backstabs in the dead of the night. Now, we're relaxing here for a few days, to decompress. Then we're going back to the surface without crossing the tunnels, how does that sound to you?"

"Lovely," Madge answered for her sister. Mona was off to the distance, running in the conjured meadow.

We rested for three days in the sanctuary. Leaving the girls inside, I shifted to the Ethereal and made my way back to base camp in a straight line.