CHAPTER 548: CHAPTER 548 - GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER STAGE (PART 1)

Since I have mostly the gist of how children are reared in beastmen tribes, it is now my turn to tell them more about how I do it in my side of the family or in their terms "my tribe". There may be some things that we have to compromise on or do differently since I am the leader of this "tribe", of course.

I already realized that there is no point in discussing the second options since everyone seems to have hated it on the get go. Thus the next topic was decided as such.

I started with a blunt statement that is bound to get a reaction from the group as I boldly said, "I plan to have many children and the only way to do that is to have several husbands. I don’t want my husbands to keep giving birth to my children until they wither and die."

I paused for a bit to check on their reactions but it seems that they do not mind it that much. The next statement though was different, "Just to put things in perspective and to show you my sincerity, I want to just lay it out. As of this time, I have 13 official husbands. Nine of these husbands were humans, either deified or in the process of deification. One of them is the deity that supports the world tree realm. The remaining three are from the giant race, elves and heralds. Officially, I also have four mystique fiancés, three human fiancés and as for the more complicated relationships or men that have showed interest to be with me, I have several of those so let’s not talk about that."

This time their eyes showed hints of surprise, helplessness and a few jealousy. The last emotion was unexpected given that I have not known most of them for that long.

My next statement was then a bit about my life as I shared, "I have only started taking in husbands a little over a year ago so you can see that I have been quite busy. My husbands live in different places but I make sure to visit each one regularly as much as I can. Currently, I already have twins with my first husband and the three of them are living in Eieneos. My deity husband in the world tree realm is pregnant. Two of my deified husbands are also pregnant. The giant, elf and herald are also pregnant. I also have one child that I deified and made to be mine while he is already in his human father’s womb. I also have orbs in the room of beginnings that are about to hatch to cute little fairies and blood demons.’"

Marius was the first to verbally react as he asked, "What is the use of telling us all this? We all know that women can have multiple husbands and a big family in this world."

I looked at Marius and replied, "I simply want you to understand what type of family you are getting yourself into, my goals and how serious I am in meeting them and also that if you enter my family, you are mine for life unless you betray me or choose to leave on your own. Being mine means being loyal to me and at the same time I will take care of all your needs which means no need to hunt while pregnant, worrying about surviving the pregnancy or how your life would be once the child is born."

Artak was the next one to ask as he queried, "Are you saying that we only need to eat and rest since the sustenance will be provided by you? We only need to worry about our health and that of the child?"

This time I looked at Artak and smile, "That how it has always been in my family from the start. Do you not want that?"

Everybody looked at me in widened eyes and nobody complained about it. I then continued, "You can still pass on knowledge on how to hunt, forage and any other useful skills to the children. I am not forbidding that. As for the food, shelter and other sustenance you might need, I will take care of that. I won’t be stupid enough to want a big family when I could not afford it."

Gyan then raised his hand and asked, "Umm... You said you wanted a lot of children and it seems like you want one from every race after having several from the humans. I am just curious though... How many children do you have as of the moment including the ones that are already born and the ones that are about to be born?"

I chuckled a bit while I look Gyan in amusement. I did not answer his inquiry immediately but returned one of my questions instead to the crowd, "I will answer that later since it is my turn to ask this time. Based on your race, how many children do you usually give birth at a time?"

I turned to the merfolk trio out of curiosity since back on earth, a female fish can lay as little as 12 eggs and some can even have millions, if not thousands per spawn. Lir was the one who answered this time as he said, "I know what that look means. We are half man and half fish so it is physically impossible to lay too many eggs just like the normal fish does. Besides, we give birth to live young and not in egg form. The most I saw that a merman can give birth to was two and that merfolk died you know."

I nodded to Lir in thanks and looked at the others around the table. One by one, they answered the number of children that a normal beastman from their tribe can give birth to.

After hearing all of their answers, I was able to group them beastmen based on the maximum number of offspring that they could have in one birth. Unsurprisingly, most of them follow the number of births that I have read back in earth for the same animals that is half of their beings.

The ones from the cow and horse tribes can only give birth to one offspring at a time. As for the sheep, deer and bear tribes they can have one and at most three. As for the tiger, lion and leopard tribes, they usually have a bit more from one to at most four.

Surprisingly, the two beastmen who were at the thinner and smaller builts have the capacity for more children. The beastmen from the fox, peacock and rabbit tribes can have one to at most six children at one birth.

As to why I was asking them so suddenly about this, it was because I just realized that my high fertility maybe a blessing to other races but for mystiques that already have multiple birth as a norm, it can be some type of suffering. To confirm this, I should ask my father first.

I can’t imagine the cute and shy Zak carrying 12 rabbit beastmen babies in one go. I think just imagining is already making my heart hurt.

I immediately sent a telepathic message to my mother and father back in Eieneos to inquire about the effects of my fertility to beastmen who already give birth to multiple children. I also asked if there was a way to control how many children will be born per birth. I hope my father responds as soon as possible.

In the eyes of the mystiques seated around the table, that moment that I was busy sending messages back home was only a short moment of distraction. They simply stayed silent and waited for me to speak agaiin.

Once I refocused to the conversation at hand, I smiled and said nonchalantly, "As per the earlier discussion, Gyan posted a rather unusual question about how many children I have as of the now.".

During the short pause, everyone simple looked at me and waited patiently for me to speak again. The first thing I explained was my high fertility and as what my father said that my children will always be at least a set of twins which will help me have more children in the least amount of time.

With just that short statement alone, I heard a lot of gasps especially from the beastmen that have higher offspring per birth. I understand their worries since it was the first things I felt too when I realized what may happen.

Zak, whom I was most worried about actually spoke as he asked, "We rabbit beastmen tend to have more kits per birth though it is hard to get pregnant. What’s more unfortunate is most of the kits do not survive infancy due to poor conditions so we prefer if there are fewer kits per birth. When you say your fertility is high, will that mean I will the maximum of six kits or.. you mean it can double... like... 12 at a time?"