"Queen Sakura, please do not be sad on my behalf, for I cannot properly express how much joy it brings me every single day that I can serve Her Majesty physically."

Sakura smiled warmly, leaning her weight on the thin sheet glass table in front of her, her chin resting comfortably on her folded arms as she looked at Vaelora with soft and affectionate eyes that crinkled at the corners. "I see... You are a good girl, Vaelora."

"She’s technically older than you, you know, so you should call her Aunty Vaelora," Titania pouted beside Sakura, crossing her small arms over her chest in a huff.

Then the Beast Queen began pressing her knuckles firmly against the Fairy queen’s head in a playful but insistent grind, twisting them against her skull like she was kneading dough.

"Ah, I just remembered something!" Sakura yelled, finally stopping her knuckle attack on Titania’s skull and sitting up straight. "Lily was not pregnant before coming here to Verdant Spire! So... what does this sudden change mean?"

All the women turned their piercing and inquisitive gazes toward the golden-haired, petite bunny princess standing near the entrance of the parlor, their eyes boring into her with varying degrees of curiosity, waiting for an explanation.

Princess Lily immediately covered her face with both of her small hands, her cheeks burning bright red with embarrassment.

"Forgive my perverted impulse and complete lack of self-control!" She began pleading, "I could not hold myself back after seeing all of you so content two days ago, being so openly affectionate with each other... And Benjamin Mark-sama was right there, looking so handsome, and I just... I mounted him without thinking about the consequences! I am so sorry for my weak-will!"

"...Pfft!" Elara herself was the first to burst out in laughter, her usual composed and regal demeanor breaking as giggles escaped her mouth, her shoulders shaking with amusement.

Then the rest of the women joined in, the tension in the room breaking into warm, affectionate chuckles that echoed off the wooden walls of the parlor.

"Relax, Princess," Elara wiped a tear, "No one is going to hoard Benjamin or keep him to themselves. As long as you do not hold any ill will towards him or try to harm him in any way, you are more than welcome to fulfill your perverted fantasies with him whenever the opportunity arises. He has more than enough energy and stamina to go around, you see."

Sakura raised a brow, her amber eyes narrowing thoughtfully at the bunny princess, studying her face for any sign of deception.

"But Lily, I heard some interesting rumors floating around Shishi-no-su that you already had a secret lover. I never had enough head space or free time to consider digging deep into the matter, so I asked Usagi-chan about it, since she hears everything that happens in the palace.

"But she keeps telling me that said lover is extremely intelligent and slippery, and that even she cannot identify them, which is unusual..."

Princess Lily immediately went emotionless and flat, her face becoming a blank mask, her eyes losing all expression, and her lips pressing into a thin line.

"That is completely false, Onee-sama. Please, I beg of you to not take the mischievous bunny’s word as certain truth. She enjoys spreading chaos and confusion for her own amusement, and she would not hesitate to lie about something like this just to see my reaction."

"Ehhhh? But there are also rumors of you moaning in your room sometimes when you think no one is listening, late at night when the palace is dark and quiet," Sakura pressed again, leaning forward across the table with clear interest in her voice, her fox ears twitching.

Princess Lily started blushing now, her face turning a deep shade of crimson that rivaled the red of Sakura’s kimono.

Her eyes were wandering all over the parlor as if searching for an escape route that did not exist, settling on the anywhere but the faces of the women staring at her.

She started stammering: "Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-that must’ve been just me pleasuring myself in my private times, when I was completely alone and had no other obligations or duties to attend to! It had nothing to do with any s-s-s-secret lover or hidden relationship or anything inappropriate! I am simply a woman with normal urges that I handle by myself!"

"..."

The entire space went completely quiet after that outburst, the laughter dying abruptly, the playful atmosphere evaporating into thick and awkward silence that pressed down on everyone in the room like a physical weight.

"Uhm... A... Again, feel free to ask Benjamin for help in the future, if you must..." Elara blushed and began sipping from her wine glass repeatedly to hide her burning face, taking long and slow drinks.

Princess Lily, however, looked like she wanted to crawl into a black hole and disappear from existence entirely, never to be seen or heard from again.

She did not want to disclose what she and her granddaughter had been doing in private, lest Silverøse found out about it and hated her. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

That was a complication she was not prepared to deal with at all, and she would rather suffer in awkward silence.

The pleasuring herself part had come very direct and sudden in the conversation, a desperate and improvised lie to cover the real truth...

But Sakura certainly knew that Usagi was behind the rumors. The mischievous bunny was always involved in something strange.

Now, everything was just embarrassing for everyone involved, so they all remained silent, sipping their drinks and avoiding eye contact with each other.

The only sounds in the room were the gentle clinking of glasses and the distant singing of the lily choir outside.

[...Wh-what is wrong with these people? Are all non-plant individuals so perverted and shameless? I have never heard such open discussion of mounting, and pleasuring, and secret lovers in my entire existence! I never want to leave this forest again if this is what passes for normal conversation in the outside world!]

The Dryad Onee-san tour guide thought to herself, her leafy body trembling slightly with secondhand embarrassment as she stood near the wall, pretending not to listen.

After spending most of the afternoon in the Living Forest, enjoying the music, drinks, and the strange conversation, the queens finally decided to return back to the main village and have the delicacies that Deva and Sara had promised to whip up for them as a special meal before they departed.

"Ehehe! Amazon delicacies, so delicious, so unlike anything we have back home... I can already taste them in my imagination!" Titania mumbled as she licked her lips, slightly drunk with her body supported by Sakura who was holding her upright with one arm wrapped around the small fairy’s neck.

It was still noon, technically speaking, but late noon — the sun had begun its gradual descent toward the horizon, and the light filtering through the trees was taking on a warmer, more orange quality.

The sun was getting to the point where it would be setting properly in the next hour or so, casting long and dramatic shadows across the forest floor as they walked.

Then something strange and terrible occurred.

Something that none of them could have anticipated or prepared for in their worst nightmares.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

The blast was primal and ancient, a sound that seemed to come from the very foundation of the world itself.

From the bedrock, the mantle, and the core of the planet.

The vibration was strong enough to resurface deep trauma and buried memories in those who heard it, shaking leaves from trees and causing winged monsters to flee in terror.

The folks who had survived the last Celestial War were the ones most terrified by the sound, as that was the last time they had ever heard such a destructive and earth-shaking roar:

The sound of godlike powers clashing, of reality bending and breaking under impossible forces, of entire armies being erased from existence in a single breath.

The women froze up completely, their bodies going rigid and their faces turning pale.

They looked far into the distant horizon beyond the forest, beyond the hills and the savannah, to see a myriad colored beam flashing into the sky.

A rainbow of destruction and power, reaching upward and upward, until it pierced through the clouds and continued into the dark expanse of space itself.

It was a pillar of pure and terrifying energy that seemed to have no end and purpose other than to announce that something had gone terribly wrong in the world.