Concentrating intensely, I compressed my Will around the atmospheric mana, forcing it to turn from an invisible gas to a liquid, though while that part was relatively quick, transforming liquid mana to a solid substance was both much harder and would require more time. Of course, as I've done this before, I knew what I was getting myself into; I just failed to respect how difficult it would be when the mana crystal I wanted to make got bigger in size.
Minutes passed by like seconds as I pushed my Will to my limit, compressing the liquid mana smaller and smaller until it finally began to take on the form of a crystal; eventually, the liquid was no more, and what stood in its place was a large, mana crystal as tall as a toddler.
"D-Done." Barely managing to speak through my wheezes, I dropped to a single knee, leaning against the crystal as I gasped for air, my vision foggy and my mind feeble from how intensely I pushed my Will. "I-Is this, b-big enough?" Slowly collapsing onto my back, I glanced up at Lazuli, who carefully inspected the crystal while I just tried not to fall unconscious.
"Not even close." "F-Fuck, h-how big does it need to be t-then?" Groaning, I glanced at the crystal, which was already considered large, yet somehow it wasn't even close to the size we required. 'Don't tell me we need one comparable to the mana crystal Lazuli absorbed back in the glade?'
Just the thought made me want to give up; it took everything I had and then some to make this crystal, but the one at the glade was ginormous, it was taller than me. 'Should I just give up on making TV's continent-wide?' Rolling onto my side, I blankly stared at a wall.
"Hmm, however, this should be more than enough to operate within a city." "I-I guess t-that's better than nothing. D-Do you think w-we can pitch the TV t-to the King now?" With a grunt of monumental effort, I rolled onto my other side, glancing at Lazuli, who was still inspecting the crystal.
"Yes. Soon… You should rest." "W-What do you think I'm doing?" Shooting her a blank look, I rolled onto my stomach, my face against the ground. 'I don't want to move anymore.' Although I didn't want to move, this position was highly uncomfortable, so after a while, I stood up, using Lazuli as support. "I-I'm going to my r-room." "I'm doubtful you'll make it." Glancing at me, Lazuli kissed my cheek while I headed for the door.
"Thank you for your encouraging words." I closed the door behind me after leaving a sarcastic comment, though as I began walking down the hall, I saw Michelle. "Ah, dear, I wanted to ask you something!" 'Ahh, that's a comfortable pillow.' Dropping my gaze to Michelle's heavy globes of delicious fat protruding from her chest, covered by a beautiful minimalist dress, I collapsed onto her.
"Eh, d-dear, s-stand up! Y-You're too heavy for me." Falling onto Michelle, I wrapped my arms around her neck while stuffing my face into her cleavage, letting her struggle against my added weight without a care in the world. "Ah, this is comfortable." "D-Dear, please stand, I-I'm falling here!" As I continued to ignore her, she ended up falling back, though I extended my arm, breaking her fall lest I end up breaking one of her ribs or something; after all, she was physically weak.
"Sorry, but I'm resting here, Michelle." Yawning, I snuggled deeper into her embrace, closing my eyes while she sighed in annoyance before tenderly rubbing my head. "Fine. Rest, dear, I'm sure you deserve it." "Mhm, I love you."
___
___
One Week Later
"How do I look? Beautiful? Sexy? Lovely?" Smirking, Jasmine slowly spun in a circle, showing off her incredible dress, before stopping and shooting me a glance, causing me to gulp. "Dangerous." She chuckled, tapping my chest before clutching my cock through my pants.
"Hehe, dangerous. I really like that response… Did you plan on meeting the King with such an obvious erection? Even a blind man could see what's going on." Despite speaking those words, she clearly had no intention of fixing my problem; hell, if anything, she was only making it worse. "Then why don't you do something about it?" Smirking, I reached down, grabbing a handful of her asscheek as I tried goading her into 'solving' my problem.
Unfortunately, Jasmine had a good head on her shoulders. "Later, okay? If we start now, we'll be late to meet the King, and that won't be good, right?" Giving my crotch a final squeeze, she backed off, causing me to grumble as I let go of her ass, glaring at her annoyance while she chuckled. "Tch, I hate you." "You might, but I know little Alex LOVES me." Flashing a grin, she leaned downwards, speaking directly to my cock, causing me to grit my teeth.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. Hehe, it's fun teasing you." "Hmph, I hope you can say the same thing when I leave you bedridden tomorrow morning." "... Maybe I shouldn't have teased you." While Jasmine was beginning to second-guess her thoughts on teasing me, I picked up the TV, exiting the room while she followed.
"Hey, Lazuli, you sure you don't want to come?" Taking the stairs down, I shouted at Lazuli, who was sitting in the living room, looking at the large mana crystal I'd recently made; it was already stored with several different 'plays'. "Yes. I want to watch this end of things." "Alright, love you!" "Bye, Lazuli."
Waving at Lazuli, I quickly fixed my pants, hiding my erection before opening the door for Jasmine as we left the house, which we'd bought just a few days prior; considering it was in the capital, we wouldn't be using it much, but since we were nobles, we ought to have a home in the capital… At least, according to Jasmine's words.
'You know, I'm a prince two times, so shouldn't I have more say than Jasmine regarding stuff like this?' Tilting my head, thinking of nonsensical stuff, Steward Kai bowed to us as we entered the waiting carriage. "Count Vestalis, Countess." "Thanks for the ride as always, Steward Kai."
While he chuckled in response before closing the door, I sat down beside Jasmine, placing the TV atop my lap as the carriage began moving.
"So, regarding Mavis. You kept her alive in hopes of her solving our pregnancy problem, right?" Raising an eyebrow at Jasmine, I nodded. "That's the plan." "So, when do you plan to impregnate us? You should know, for a Princess in her mid-20's to still be childless is considered terrible." "Don't worry, I'll give you twice the number of children you want… Though I'm not doing anything because I don't trust Mavis. The pact I made with her keeps her as my slave, but it doesn't fully remove her freedom. She's still dangerous."
Flashing Jasmine a smirk, I poked her stomach before softly sighing and frowning as I leaned back, causing Jasmine to hum as she nodded. "If you say so. Just know, I want a child before I'm 30. It would be a bad omen otherwise." "Heh, I bet your parents are just pressuring you or something." Smirking, I nudged her shoulder, though she went stiff while she lowered her head, causing me to slightly frown.
"Everything good? Jasmine, everything good?" As I gently nudged her, she raised her head, faking a smile as she nodded while brushing aside her hair. "Yes. I'm fine." She averted her gaze, quietly looking out through the window while I slowly nodded. As her husband, I could tell when she was lying, and she was lying now.
'What's wrong?' I couldn't help but frown, but seeing how she didn't want to tell me, I just let it be.
Feeling the carriage come to a halt, we stood up, the door opening as we exited the carriage and followed Steward Kai into the palace. "I'm surprised His Majesty was able to accommodate us so fast; I imagined it would've taken a few weeks at the earliest to get an audience with him." Kai chuckled as he led us through the palace to the throne room.
"You should thank Her Highness Count Vestalis; she helped speed things up." I glanced at Kai in surprise, not expecting that from Princess Iguan. 'Huh, I suppose she must've gained some Authority now that she's been accepted into the Mage Guild… I should thank her.' "Is Princess Iguan present?" "Unfortunately, no, she is at the Mage Guild; she now spends a good chunk of her time out of the palace."
"I see." With a nod, I shifted my gaze to the large double doors, while Kai bowed. "We've arrived. His Majesty awaits inside." Nodding to him, I glanced at Jasmine, who was standing beside me, and gestured to the guards, prompting them to open the double doors while the two of us entered.