Athos stretched defiantly in his luxury, taking in all the wonderful space and the warmth his blankets provided to him before he woke late the next morning.
The sun was already pouring in from the windows, but the vengeful creature failed to reach him on the bed, positioned just out of its angular reach. Other gentle noises found him and roused him gently from his slumber. Birds were quietly chirping on the tree outside, and the sheets made a lovely swishing noise as he moved within them. He was like a caterpillar, hugging the squares of cloth around his body like a silken cocoon. That was one of the single most restful ‘nights’ that Athos could remember from his entire time in Incipere.
Hell, maybe even in his entire life!
Well, most restful without consequences.
He had no intention of counting any of the times he’d literally passed out and was forced into a full twelve-hour recovery sleep by the new system rules.
Either way, he’d take swimming in a king-sized bed over passing out, smacking Sally in the face with his limp arm, and having to hear about it in the morning any day of the week.
By the time he finally stirred and got himself up, changed into a new set of clothes, still the black and silver he’d been wearing since his early days, and made it downstairs, he found the rest of the Queen family had already been up, made a breakfast-for-lunch, finished, and were chatting in the family room off the kitchen.
Silently, he cursed the early risers.
Still, there were freshly baked rolls, real eggs and bacon, or as real as Inciperian food got anyway, and a familiar, thick blue juice that Athos pushed slightly away as he heaped the food on his plate and joined the rest of the family.
When he entered the room, Sally gave him a rather sharp look, which he returned with a smile as he sat next to her on the couch.
As if to show there really were no hard feelings, she scooted over just enough so that he could sit comfortably before she deftly stole a piece of his bacon without batting an eye at his outrage.
“Hey!” Athos’s voice was aghast, mustering as much defiance as he could.
Sally’s smile crept into what could only be called a shit-eating grin by anyone from Earth.
“Wife tax,” she replied quickly, devouring the strip of crisp meat still dripping slightly with the digitized representation of grease before Athos could raise more of a fuss.
He watched her for a moment longer before Emily and Walter erupted into laughter. The former from Athos losing his precious treat while the latter for knowing the tax all too well and enjoying the fact his daughter so firmly enforced it on the man.
“I’ve seen yet to see the paperwork for the tax,” Athos said in his usual defense.
“Should have read the marriage agreement more thoroughly,” Sally retorted as she went in for another piece.
Not tolerating the theft, Athos quickly shoved the remaining two pieces in his mouth, leaving the eggs and rolls alone and his plans for a bacon egg breakfast sandwich fully defeated. Having to chew and swallow food again was an odd thing, but he didn’t mind. It made Incipere feel more like Earth had. Still, it did make eating take longer, even if it was more civilized than just shoving the food in your mouth to dissolve into usable data.
When he finished with the meat and was casually piling eggs onto the bread he’d split, he turned his ear to the conversation going on around him. There were little things, what Walter and Emily were planting this season, the fact it was supposed to snow tonight, the festival, and when the conversation slowed and the food was gone, Athos spoke up.
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“So, what is the plan for the afternoon?”
Walter smiled, a disturbing, slightly baleful smile that told Athos all he needed to know.
“Are you familiar with the phrase, working for the weekend? We need to rotate the greenhouse, shore up the fences, feed the malso, and muck the monster barn.”
The way Walter listed off each chore made it seem planned, too well planned in fact, and the way Sandra tried to hide her smile confirmed it.
Of course, he’d pawn the work off onto his son-in-law when he could.
Walter made no motion to hide his mirth as he took a long draft of the coffee he held, but some still clung to the edges of the beard around his mouth as he spoke. “It’ll take most of the rest of the afternoon to get everything done, so Sally agreed to take Emily to town to enjoy the festival. You can catch up with them when you’re done helping me out.”
If he was expecting a fight, he was about to be sorely disappointed.
It was Athos’s turn to smile.
“Glad to help, Walter.” As he spoke, Athos’s smile grew wider, hiding just a bit more mirth than he should have within it. “It won’t take nearly that long though. I’ll probably head out with them.”
It was Walter’s faltering smile that gave Athos hope as he spoke. “Really? It takes Emma and me the better part of the day to do most of it, and I saved the greenhouse for us.”
Sally’s smirk joined Athos’s. “I’m sure he’ll be able to come, Dad. Right, Aramis?”
“Give us twenty minutes,” Athos said confidently, set his plate aside, and got up. “Fifteen if we start now.”
The mountain of a man looked skeptical, but he nodded, downed the rest of the black-brown brew, and stood up. “Alright, son. Let’s do this.”
“Oh, I’ve got to see the look on his face,” Sally said, standing as well and nearly losing her balance before Sandra caught her arm. Her mother simply smiled, said nothing, and helped her elder daughter to watch the spectacle.
***
“How the…”
Athos grinned as twenty teenager-size humanoids made of steel and light stood at attention. Each held the tools of the day, a pitchfork, shovel, hoe, some kind of tiller, feed buckets, and more. He did his best to hide the effort it’d taken, but his stats wouldn’t let him forget as his Exertion reached two-thirds full. “What good is being a World Boss without minions to boss around? Walter, meet the Alchemical Vanguard Lumins.”
“He still has to do chores at home by hand,” Sally said to her mother. “They do well with general tasks like this, not delicate tasks like cleaning my workshop.”
He winced.
“Once. They made a mistake once.”
“And set me back weeks when they blew up my kiln,” she reminded him. “Besides, it’s more fun to watch you work.”
Athos grinned, ready to reply, but remembered his company and bit his tongue. Sally just grinned, knowing the score for the day was in her favor once more.
“So, what do I do with them?” Walter asked, looking them over as they held their light and scrap tools.
“Lumins,” Athos began, and they all turned to face him. Though their faces were blank orbs of light held above their steel frames, they radiated a peace about them, contentment in their lot in life, and Athos was never one to argue that. “Walter is your master until I return. Do not harm him, the farm, or anyone he does not directly tell you to. You are to follow his commands to their desired intent, and when he dismisses you, you are to dismiss yourselves. Understood?”
The entire group nodded as one, and Athos turned back to Walter.
“There you are. Just tell them what to do, Grandpa.” He held the last word a little longer than he intended to tease, but Walter didn’t turn it down as he thought it would.
“I’m going to work them to the bone,” Walter grinned, rubbing his hands together as Sandra sighed in the background. “Do they have bones?”
Athos shook his head. “They have the integrity of your average Incipereian with a faster than average recovery time. So, just let them rest once in a while, and they’ll be fine.” He turned to Sally and Emily, smiling as if he’d won the lottery, and clapped his hands together. “If there’s nothing else, I believe we have a festival to visit.”
“Nope, this is the best gift I could have asked for, Athos. Take care of my girls. We’ve got so much work to do.”
“Yes!” Emily cheered as she took Sally’s hand and led her towards the gate. Apparently, her older sister had told the girl how much she disliked using any kind of teleportation while pregnant.
With that, Walter waved them off as he took control of the group with a simple command, then stopped in his tracked and spun back. “No boys, Emma!”
“Dad!” she grumbled, dragging a foot through the dirt for a few breaths, avoiding the man’s gaze. She peaked up through purple locks to see him still staring before replying with a long, drawn out, “Fine.”
Athos laughed, but Sally smiled deviously as she squeezed her sister’s hand. There was a story there she fully intended to pull from her sister for blackmail later, and Athos fully intended to join in and tease the grape to the heights that his favorite uncle/brother-in-law status would allow.