Back at the castle, the faint moonlight illuminated the living room of Arad’s private quarters. Isdis sat on a wooden chair and looked at everyone around. She spotted Arad relaxing on the main couch, and smiled.

She had gathered all of the maids and servants here, which sounded impossible at first until Merlin told her that she could just stretch the living room with magic. Since the entire living quarter is a part of her maze, she could easily make this place several times larger.

"I gathered you all here today to explain the hierarchy between us and how things are going to run from now on. I know it might sound a bit complicated, but I assure you, follow those in front of you, and make sure the ones behind you stay close, and you will be fine."

Isdis then went on and started explaining everything as the maids and servants started taking notes. The first rule she stated was the order of command, like in the army, everyone is expected to follow orders from those higher up than them, unless necessity states otherwise.

Arad stands at the head of everything, followed by the wives, concubines, mistresses, maids, and lastly the servants. That means that his word is the law, and disobeying him is highly frowned upon. She also made it clear that while disobeying him is unfavorable, it’s not forbidden. If they had a reason to reject his orders, they are free to explain themselves.

They are here to serve, not to blindly follow orders like dolls. If Arad and his wives wanted mindless servants, they could’ve used his void creatures or magical dolls and golems.

"Arad, give one of the maids an unreasonable order." She pointed and he had to think about it for a few seconds. After looking at all the maids and servants, he finally singled out one of them. "You, Olivia? Yes, Olivia buckhorn."

The maid flinched, slowly turned toward him, and slightly bowed. "Yes."

"Clean the attic." As Arad spoke with a smile, the maid froze in place, remained silent for a long while, then looked at Isdis with tearful eyes. "How? I have no reason to say no."

Isdis sighed. "Arad, explain to her."

"That maid outfit, it’s new, right. I’ve noticed you’ve been avoiding getting it dirty or wrinkled this whole time. Cleaning the attic is bound to mess it up, so you can refuse."

Now, the maid switched from confused to puzzled. "Lady Isdis... this isn’t a valid reason, is it? Those outfits are made for us to work in; they are supposed to get dirty. I just didn’t want to mess it up hours after getting it."

Isdis nodded. "No, it’s valid. Besides, you won’t be skipping work anyway. The attic has to be cleaned, so if you won’t clean it, how about you switch jobs with someone else?" She looked at Arad. "If she now told you she doesn’t want to clean the attic because it’ll get her outfit dirty, what would you say?"

Arad smiled. "Well, fine. Switch with one of the maids cleaning the bath. You can work in there naked or with a bathing suit, so your uniform would remain clean, and the maid you switched jobs with would clean the attic. Basically, your roles are flexible. As long as the job gets done, it doesn’t matter who did it."

The maid’s eyes sparkled. "I see! Unlike in the royal palace, here we aren’t bound to specific roles. If I’m on cooking duty and don’t feel like cooking, I can do something else as long as I find another maid to switch with me."

Isdis sat back on her chair and kept explaining the details and how the orders are ranked in importance based on who issued them. Arad’s orders are higher than the wives’, and the wives’ orders are higher than the concubines and so on until the maids.

One of the maids then lifted her hand and looked at Isdis. "What about night duty?"

"While you’ll stand in the rooms ready to jump in, it would be extremely rare for you maids and servants to get a chance in with Arad, so I would say take your chance if it arrives. But, you can reject if you want, just don’t regret that decision."

She looked at them with a smug grin. "Just to let you know, getting pregnant would instantly raise you into the rank of a mistress at the least. If you got pregnant with a void dragon, you’ll have to become one of the queens. Albeit... it would be a disaster if many of you got all pregnant at once and Arad had to feed you his mana."

She went on and explained what Lala and Arad’s mother had taught them so far. The closer two races are, the higher the chance of pregnancy between them. For example, humans and dwarves are similar, so the chances are high, while humans and elves have completely different origins, making it very hard.

Out of everyone, the only one who has a near one hundred percent chance of getting pregnant with a void dragon is Altair, because she is a void drakaina.

While that difference would lower the chance, what makes it even worse is the biological limitations of size, mana capacity, soul quality, and Arad’s extreme power. Since the maids are far weaker than he is and lack any adaptation that might favor them, their chances of getting pregnant are near zero.

So if one of them got pregnant, that would be like hitting the jackpot, and getting pregnant with a void dragon is a super rare jackpot that would never happen twice.

With that, the maids and servants understood what they should do if they wanted to become queens or raise in rank, they have to get stronger somehow, either by sheer effort, or gaining power somehow. For example, Lexi is a wizard, so she can try to train to raise her mana capacity and circumvent the mana limitation. Those of them who have bloodlines, especially draconic bloodlines, can focus on that and hope to eventually evolve into dragons.

Among the maids and servants, many of them had dormant bloodlines, or bloodlines that they knew of but never cared to train or use.

"Today is the first day of what is usually known among royals as the heir month, or what the common people call it a honey moon. It’s the month were the King and Queen try to get an heir." She looked at Aella, "Starting with Aella, Ganta, Lexi, and Kaede."

She stood, clapped her hands, and pointed at the maids. "You, you, you..." She pointed out twenty of them and smiled. "You’re on Aella’s duty, stand with them in their room, and help if needed. As usual, your job isn’t to join them, watch, or interfere; it is to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible."

Half an hour later, Arad was sitting on Aella’s massive bed. Through this month, he won’t be using his room and will have to spend a night with each of his wives on the days after their crowning. So for the coming four days or so, he’ll be spending each night here with Aella, Ganta, Lexi, and Kaede.

Aella is already pregnant, but as Isdis explained, each wife has to get her time no matter what.

"Finally!" Aella walked into the room out of the shower and dropped on the bed face-first. "Merlin said that she stretched the night by an extra twelve hours, but how does that even work?"

Arad looked at her. "She sealed the room away and cast a persistent time-accelerating spell. In reality, time would pass normally, but inside the room it is flowing much faster, so it feels longer for us."

"Who cares about how it works?" Ganta walked out of the bath, followed by the other two. "As long as it works, I won’t complain. This means we get to have some fun, sleep, and have time to spare."