Rainer stared at the Fae Palace as bad memories came bubbling up to the surface. Had he not done all that work resisting the effects of the Arcane inside him, he might have tested out his newest spell on this building. He had a few ideas on how not to die in the resulting effects.

“You ready?” he asked Luna, currently resting on his head. Mira was over in discussion with several important Princes of the Courts, making it clear who she was supporting.

“Yep. Rainer can just get rid of the ruler again if it’s not Luna.”

“Sure,” Rainer responded, not sure if she was joking.

“Well come on then! All you Trial escorts and any Trial takers capable of fighting, come at me at once so we get this thing over with and get to the party!” Mira suddenly yelled and once many of them digested her words you could see the ugly expressions across many of their faces. Even if the division of Fruit wouldn’t matter too much to whoever won, along with an agreement not to try and actually rule, there were still plenty who wanted the throne simply for personal reasons.

“If you aren’t coming-” Mira suddenly vanished through the Void and appeared in front of one of the stronger Trial takers. An Aura and Passive Spell enhanced fist later and he was laid out despite his rapid attempts at shielding and diffusing the force with a block. Rainer guessed it hadn’t even been a quarter of her strength seeing as she wasn’t planning on killing anyone.

Mira wasn’t at the point where she could take on all of Fae-kind, but in this type of battle no one could match her. Especially since Passive Spells technically represented an unlimited resource in battle unlike Body Enchantments.

A short one-sided battle later, Mira and Luna happily entered the Trial grounds hand in hand. The short Fairy who had descended like an angry god looked almost comical next to the taller Luna, who was also taller than most male Fae.

“Perhaps having the wife of the [Archon] as Queen wouldn’t be a bad deal,” Rainer heard amongst the resigned mumbles. “Maybe we can even head out into the world more… or explore this realm,” another mumbled.

Without any high stakes, the non-challengers seemed mostly okay with this outcome. Several of the losers certainly didn’t, but no one was stupid enough to not see the distance between them and Mira. It was certainly a shock to see the loner Aura-type Fae suddenly standing so far above them.

“And Mira assured that Luna wouldn’t do anything resembling ruling. Maybe it’s for the best no court wins.”

Rainer turned his focus back on the palace. Even if he was sure nothing would go wrong, it didn’t stifle his nervousness.

It was only a few minutes later that the palace erupted in a blinding light of Divinity and a monotone voice announced the name of their Queen.

“All hail, Queen Luna Emralira-Igna, [Chosen] of the Fae.”

Rainer grimaced as all of the Fae present froze. Luna still had Yulia’s last name. They erupted in loud arguments soon after.

“Quiet! Luna’s the reason I killed Yulia,” his Arcane enhanced voice tore through the air as the Arcanium descended for a brief moment.

Shortly after, several of the elders managed to calm the rest down. Many of them actually liked the idea of an outsider Fae as Queen.

“Let’s prepare for the coronation,” a mage from the Circle of Seekers, whom Rainer was friendly with, spoke soon after and gradually everyone calmed down as the Courts headed into the Palace.

“It’s good for you things settled easily, yeah,” Laneth said as he headed in beside Rainer.

“It’s good for you,” Rainer corrected.

The Fae Prince paused and thought it over before nodding.

“Yes, it’s good for the Fae things settled peacefully.”

Their conversation didn’t go unnoticed. And after feeling that magic descend upon all of them at once, many were liable to agree.

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Standing beside Luna’s throne, Rainer watched patiently as a procession of gifts were laid at her feet and then taken to a back room by servants.

Glancing over at Sarah who stood in the crowd with the rest of his family, he burst out into laughter before forcing it into a cough. Thankfully, he was too powerful for anyone to call him out on it. He just had to endure some dirty looks before people quickly looked away from him.

He could just picture Sarah’s eyes turning into two dollar signs as Luna received gift after gift. How did a rich girl end up as such a greedy goblin?

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“No.”

The Fae Prince currently bowing and asking Luna to dance felt his face cramp. It was tradition for either Queen or King to dance with the various court Princes and Princesses.

“Luna, you don’t want to dance?” Rainer asked.

“He’s too short. A Queen shouldn’t dance with someone she doesn’t want to.”

Rainer’s lips quirked at the annoyed expression on the Prince’s face, who was actually quite tall compared to the average Fae.

“Well… we didn’t dance with the Queen last time either,” he mumbled as he walked away.

“For some variety,” Rainer said, as his second Avatar appeared in front of Luna.

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“Could I have this dance, my Queen?” his Avatar asked.

Luna made a show of thinking it over, before eventually following him out. She was enjoying this Queen thing a bit too much. He could already imagine her walking around the Fae City just to have people call her Queen Luna.

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Standing on one of the palace’s balconies, Rainer and Luna looked out over the city. They had just returned from the city-wide celebration, adding yet another weird toy to Luna’s collection alongside the tentacled monstrosity she won last time.

It was nice to see Luna smile here, given the palace only had bad memories for her. Her silver hair blew gently in the wind as she played with a violet fire in her hand. The Fire itself had been slowly eating whatever Divine Power Luna received as a [Chosen]. Rainer had been watching the process on occasion with [Arcane Revelation] to make sure nothing wrong happened. All he saw was the flame grow stronger and stronger.

What was that Fire intertwined with her Soul? Glancing back at her violet eyes that glowed with the flame in her hand...

“Luna, would you marry me?”

“We aren’t married already?” Luna asked as she sent a small flock of birds made from her flame flying off into the air. Was she controlling it or...

“Nope.”

“Humph. Rainer just wants to now because Luna is a Queen. We are not sure if We should agree.”

“Do I need to conquer a country first then?” Rainer asked, wondering where Luna picked up the idea to speak in plural.

Luna shook her head, “It has to be at least three. We won’t settle for anything less than an Emperor.”

Rainer laughed and then picked her up in his arms.

“I’m afraid I was only asking to be polite. But the first country I’ll start with is this one.”

“Your Queen is being kidnapped!” Luna yelled, though Rainer was sure no one could understand what she said over the giggles.

Rainer vanished in a Void-walk moments later. The Queen’s chambers were lovely, and they had all the gifted new furniture to break in.

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“Hey Rainer, could we talk for a bit?” Kara asked, having grabbed him the moment he brought her into [Sleep Learning] later that night.

Rainer nodded, wondering what this was about. She couldn’t be mad over him proposing to Luna could she? Polygamy was common enough amongst the powerful and wealthy to where every society had provisions for multiple marriages, Fae and Demon included.

“What are you hiding?” she asked once they were alone.

“I proposed to Luna?”

“No, she told me. Why would that be hidden in the first place?”

Rainer frowned before realizing he was in-fact hiding something pretty big. He saw no reason to worry her earlier. But now he felt cold sweat on his back as he realized the fact that he did hide it would worry her quite a bit.

“You wouldn’t hold anything Francis did against me, would you?”

Kara shrugged, “As far as I’m concerned, anything he did happened when we weren’t together.”

Rainer smiled a bit, happy she was being far too reasonable about it. He wasn’t sure if he could do the same if the situation was reversed. Maybe he should bring her somewhere especially nice on Earth once they finished with the Dungeon?

“Ah well… Francis kind of sort of fell in love with Talvara. In fact he had some, or I supposed I had some, pretty weird fantasies of her smog-form filling in the once existing hole in my Soul.”

“So you’re in love with Talvara?” she corrected.

Rainer nodded, noting with relief there was nothing bad in her tone. Yet.

“And you didn’t tell me for months, because?”

“I saw no reason to worry you over something that would never happen? I’m sorry I kept it from you.”

“Hmm.”

Kara just looked at him for a long time, and Rainer did his best not to squirm as the seconds turned to minutes.

“Your eyes have gotten prettier since the Trial.” Her golden eye seemed lean farther into the actual metallic gold, while her crimson one had darkened and became more vivid. Her bloodline had still been changing after the class merger that happened at Tier 2 even now.

Kara rolled said prettier eyes before finally speaking again.

“What could you have even done anyways for me to be worried about. Or even if I agreed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Would you sleep with her while she possessed Aurora?”

Rainer grimaced; that would be far too close to a line he’d never cross.

“Ignoring that I would have never done anything with her anyways, no, it’s still Aurora’s body.”

“I agree. And then you have your rule of nothing too enjoyable in the [Sleep Learning] space, so that’s out. At least for regular use.”

He nodded, it was far too slippery a slope for his place of Magic and Training to turn into a den of pleasure, drugs, or flesh. And there might be no turning back. He had always been curious how virtual reality could affect a society, given his own space, so he never wanted to chance that type of thing.

“So what would there be me to worry over? You playing with smog at the risk of Divines attacking you?”

“I kept the secret for no reason, huh?”

“Yes. Especially since I don't mind.”

“What?”

Kara shrugged, “Talvara’s beautiful and is always flirting with me when I get her to pretend to be a Void Lord and duel with me. Really, if we weren’t together I would have seen whether her flirting was serious,” Kara said with a blush despite how blunt she was being.

“Even if it’s only in here, having someone who can change their form so freely is pretty tempting, no? The idea doesn’t bother me that much after Luna, so long as she isn’t just yours.”

“You know you can’t just assume she’s bisexual or into sharing,” Rainer said, not knowing how the conversation ended up here and just reaching out to something.

“She’s an amorphous ball of smoke and Void. What can you actually assume?”

“That… that’s a good point. Also dueling?”

“You think it doesn’t bother me I’m basically useless whenever you use [Void-Hold]? I don’t mind you being stronger than me, but only to a degree.

“Also that’s a pretty subdued response to what I said about Talvara.”

Rainer just threw his hands up. What was he supposed to say? He liked how things were. And he wasn’t willing to throw a wrench into it and hope it worked out well in the end. He was happy about this, sure. But that wasn’t his main focus.

“Kara, you’re enough for me.”

“And Luna,” she corrected, “And I know.” Her wolven ears twitched as she chuckled at the look on his face. She had caught him completely by surprise with this. And there was the bonus of him thinking she was doing this just for him. She really did like Talvara’s body changing ability and the woman, Void-being, or whatever she was, proved enjoyable to be around herself.

Rainer eventually just sighed, “You’re more than I could have ever asked for.”

“I’m aware,” Kara said, then enjoyed his hand scratching her ears while he kissed her.

“Well, while you are in a good mood, I have something to tell you about my plans before the Dungeon Meet…” Kara started, knowing this would lead into an argument.

But what could she do? She’d never progress where she wanted to without the danger of death.