She is an absolute genius when it comes to magic and I would be stupid not to ask for her help. Even if the chances are high that I have missed something simple and will feel like an idiot when she points it out. I would feel even worse if I missed something simple and it ended up getting someone hurt.

  My pride, not that I have much, is definitely not worth taking that risk with my loved ones. Especially considering that I plan to let my kids come here to play after the honeymoon is over. I feel even more responsible for them and won’t take any risks where they are concerned.

  Although, to be honest, the kids have gotten a lot stronger and can take care of themselves. That doesn’t stop me from worrying about them and wanting to make sure that they are safe. So, the defenses will need to be done before then or I won’t be able to stop worrying.

  Since I already know what size I need them to be, I decide to start making the towers. Besides, it will give me something to do while I am waiting for the girls to wake up. Stacks of completed obelisks will also be less of an eyesore than the piles of stone.

  I craft all of the stone into the tower obelisks, but I don’t add any enchantments yet. I will leave that until after I have checked with Lin and gotten her advice on them. The sun has been up for a couple of hours by the time I am done, so I head back to the lodge.

  The girls are still asleep, but it shouldn’t be much longer before they wake up. So I sit down at the table, take out the manga I was reading, and pick up where I left off. I read until the girls finally wake up and eat breakfast with them before bringing up the subject.

  “Lin, can you take a look at this for me?”

  Lin says “Sure, what is it?”

  “A design for a formation to improve the defenses of the island.”

  Lin says “Why is it so complicated?”

  “To have enough points for me to place enough towers to cover the entire border of the island. I don’t want to leave any gaps where something could sneak through.”

  Lin says “Alright, but why does it have to be just one formation?”

  “Damn, how did I miss that?!”

  Myria says “Because you are a man! Men always look for complicated solutions!”

  Lin laughs and says “Look here. If you use simple formations like this, you can get all the points that you want. You can even arrange the smaller formations to create a greater formation, like this.”

  “You really are a genius! What would I do without you?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Kreno says “You’d probably end up blowing us all up!”

  Sero says “Sis, be nice!”

  Kreno says “What? It’s true! Without Lin, he would come up with some crazy, convoluted plan to make his idea work and it would blow up in his face. That’s how our creators described him!”

  Brightfire says “Sadly, that’s not exactly wrong.”

  “Hey!”

  Myria says “Your plans have had some spectacular failures.”

  “Maybe in the past, but not recently!”

  Myria says “That doesn’t count, you have had Lin’s help with your recent plans.”

  Lin says “She has a point.”

  “Not you too! Are all of you against me?”

  Mercy says “I’m not. I trust you.”

  Myria says “Didn’t he blow up most of your capital city?!”

  Mercy says “That wasn’t his fault. It was the shadow demon’s doing. If he hadn’t stopped them, my capital would have become part of the shadow plane.”

  Brightfire says “We aren’t saying that he doesn’t do good things. We are just saying it is a lot more dangerous when Lin doesn’t help him with his plans.”

  Lin says “Alright, enough teasing him! Here, these formations should work the best.”

  “Thanks. I don’t know why I got stuck on the thought of using a single formation.”

  Lin says “Probably because that was the first thought you had and you just stuck with it. You do tend to focus on things a little too strongly sometimes.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. Anyway, these are the enchantments I am planning to put on the obelisks.”

  Lin says “I don’t see any problems. Do you intend to tie the existing defenses into the obelisks as well?”

  “Yeah, I do. It will improve the strength of the barriers. If there is any capacity left after that I plan to add either invisibility or camouflage so that they don’t ruin the view.”

  Lin says “Sounds good, but when are you going to do all this work?”

  “I already got the stone and made the obelisks. All I need to do is find time to enchant them, place them, and complete the formations. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. I’m sure I’ll find the time sooner or later.”

  Myria says “You could just do it right now and get it out of the way.”

  “No, if I can help it I don’t want to let anything reduce our time together.”

  Myria says “Then you must be planning to do it while we are sleeping?”

  Kreno says “You had better not be thinking you can repeat the trick you used last night. We won’t allow that!”

  “What trick? Sero seemed to enjoy my attention.”

  Sero says “Meanie!”

  “How am I mean?!”

  Mercy says “For those of us that are just human, your attentions can be a little painful. Although, thanks to your aura it heals immediately, we still feel the pain.”

  “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize that I was getting that carried away! From now on, I will stick to using my human form in bed, that way my stats will be more restricted!”

  Brightfire says “Will your stamina also be restricted?!”

  “No. My stamina won’t be affected. Neither will my regen.”

  Myria says “What does your regen have to do with it?”

  “My regen also affects my stamina recovery.”

  Myria says “What?! If you say that Sero’s spell is cheating, then you have been cheating the entire time?!?!”

  “Of course I have! How else do you think I was able to keep the four of you satisfied?!”

  Lin says “So, you admit to cheating?”

  “No, it’s not really cheating. After all, my regen is a part of me and it isn’t something that I can turn off. I just didn’t explain my natural advantage over you, but you all knew that I wasn’t human.”

  Lin says “I guess that’s true.”

  Myria says “It still sounds like cheating to me!”

  Brightfire says “Who cares if it is cheating or not? It’s not like we are going to leave him for cheating!”

  Myria says “Of course not!! It just gives us something new to tease him about!”

  Lin says “Alright, enough. We have gotten way off topic.”

  Brightfire says “Actually, I have a personal request before we get back on topic.”

  “What is your request, Brightfire?”