When I turn to look at her, I find Bella is looking at me and grinning from ear to ear. I was expecting this request to come at some point, just not this fast, Bella must have made an impression on Kreno. However, a promise is a promise and I am not about to go back on my word.

  Kreno says “So, do I get my request?”

  “Yes, you do.”

  Kreno says “Yay! This is going to be fun!”

  Sero says “I think I will just go cuddle with the kids again.”

  Kreno says “Oh, no you don’t! You are joining us! It will be fun and you can learn some new things!”

  Sero tries to argue, but Kreno ignores her words and starts dragging her upstairs to the bedroom. The rest of the girls are laughing as they get up and follow the two of them. I am the last one to leave the table and head upstairs, shapeshifting as I go.

  Even just walking up the stairs feels weird once I am done shapeshifting into a human female. I have only done this a couple of times, so I am still not used to it, but it is what the girls want. I still have some hang-ups about changing my gender, but that is mostly from how I was raised.

  The few times I have done it before have been very enjoyable, but I have trouble admitting that, even to myself. I am pretty sure that the girls have noticed me having issues, but they have left me to work through them. I am glad for that, if they started teasing me I would be having even more problems.

  As it is, it is all I can do to keep my issues from interfering and let myself enjoy what is going on. It isn’t like our normal fun, but it is just as enjoyable if in different ways. Kreno has taken charge and is having a ton of fun directing all of the action.

  There is no battle of stamina and Sero doesn’t use her spell, everyone just has fun until they fall asleep. It is different, but sometimes a change of pace makes everything better. I am the last one to fall asleep, but I still only sleep for a couple of hours before waking up.

  I sneak out of bed and then use the gate in the room to move to the elven capital. Once there, I craft a permanent gate between the palace and the lodge on the island. I don’t put the gate in the bedroom since there will be others that will need to use it.

  When I get back from putting the gate on the island, I find Stillwater waiting to talk to me. Luckily, he just wants some more details on some plans that I suggested. We talk for a few minutes, then he heads off and I gate back to the castle using a spell.

  Doing it that way allows me to return to the castle’s courtyard instead of the bedroom. I don’t want to accidentally disturb the girls and get in trouble for waking them before dawn. Even the ones who shouldn’t need as much sleep get really grumpy if they get woken up.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The problem now is that I really don’t have much to do with the limited time I have. I plan to leave to visit the dragon after breakfast, which is only a few hours from now. Most of what I want to do would take a lot more time than that, other than making obelisks.

  The problem is that I really don’t feel like making more of them right now, it is boring. I really need to figure out another way to make the obelisks and enchant them. Something automated so that I don’t need to be involved would be perfect, but that isn’t easy.

  I can probably come up with something that would shape the stone, but the enchantments are another story. Still, that would remove half the work and I could even put it at the quarry and just have them add the stone. Something that they could shovel loose stone into and it would just shape it.

  Really, all I need is a box that is bigger than the obelisk, the enchantments won’t be hard. I have made so many of the things that creating an enchantment to shape them is super easy. I really wish that I could figure out how to make golems that can use magic, without being possessed by a ghost.

  Hopefully, something that I learn from the dragon will allow me to solve that problem. If I could make golems that can cast spells I could do all sorts of nifty things with them. Just the thought of it has my brain running in a hundred different directions.

  I quickly shove all that to the back of my mind, I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. Instead, I head to my workshop and start crafting a box large enough to fit several obelisks. I leave an opening at the top where the stone will be added and one at the bottom for the obelisks to come out.

  I place a collection point below the top opening and enchant it to fuse the stone into a block. Then the block will drop down to another platform and the enchantment will shape it into an obelisk. Once finished, the obelisk will get spit out through the bottom into some catch bars.

  Someone will need to move the completed obelisks out from there, but that shouldn’t be a problem. A worker or two at the quarry will be enough to handle that. With that done, I add enchantments to keep it repaired and then carve formations to gather mana.

  The box will power itself fairly easily, none of the enchantments use a lot of mana. As long as no one smashes it intentionally, it should keep running forever, but it isn’t very fast. When I test it, it takes a few minutes to fuse the stone and then shape it into an obelisk.

  I have no idea how fast the quarry might produce loose stone so I go ahead and make a second box. Once it is done and enchanted I gate to the quarry and have one of the foremen woken up. While I am waiting I set out the two boxes a little apart from each other so they can both gather enough mana.

  Foreman says “How may I serve you, Your Majesty?!”

  I explain how the boxes work and their purpose to the foreman and inform him someone will pick up the obelisks periodically. Once that is done I gate back to the castle where I find Brightfire and Albion awake. Brightfire looks barely awake, but Albion is wide awake and bouncing around already.

  “I see that someone is excited!”

  Brightfire yawns and says “Yeah, so excited that he barged into the room and woke all of us up!”

  Albion hangs his head and says “I said I was sorry!”

  “Oh! It would probably be a good idea to be gone before they wake back up!”

  Brightfire says “Yeah, that’s the plan. I just wanted to see you before I go. Where did you go anyway?”