Hmm? Was that Filo jumping in . . . ? Why was she intervening now?

“Well, you see . . . the reason that animals are divided into males and females is so that they can mate. Also . . .”

Filo answered the confused Keel. She went on to eloquently describe the role of man and woman, dressing it all up in rich, luscious language—not as a simple fact of life, but as a sweet, romantic ritual that bordered on the realm of art.

I looked straight at Raphtalia, but she shook her head violently. Was it Rishia, then? I looked over at Rishia, and she screamed, “It wasn’t me!” Filo was terrible at explaining things, so the fact that she could go into so much detail meant that someone had to have told her all of this. That left Kizuna’s group. It must have been L’Arc, considering what a lecher he was.

“Why do you know so much about this? Did L’Arc tell you?”

“Nuh-uh. I’ve always known.”

Genetic memory? Surely not . . . I bet Filo had done the dirty with some wild male filolial. She must have learned about it then. Or maybe it was when she had been a humming fairy.

“Master’s thinking something weeeird!”

Filo protested, a tinge of mortification in her voice. Get over it. Anyway, I’d have to keep an eye out to see if she laid any eggs.

“Boo!”

Her complaining was getting annoying lately.

“Rafu?”

“You don’t need to worry about that kind of thing, Raph-chan. I’m not letting any boys run off with you.”

“Why are you talking to Raph-chan like you’re her father, Mr. Naofumi?”

“Say it to meeee, too!”

Ha! Not likely. You can run off and get hitched with Melty for all I care!

As we were going back and forth, I noticed that everyone still present, including Raphtalia, was turning red with embarrassment. The boys had all jumped into the ocean and still hadn’t returned. Were they okay?

“No . . . no way! There’s no way I’m going to do anything like that! I would never do that with bubba!”

“Why does it have to be me doing the doing?”

Stop making it sound like I bought and raised you to be a sex slave! God dammit. Now I was annoyed. This was why I hated little brats that thought about nothing but the opposite sex.

“Enough of this stupid conversation. We have a new rule now. Relationships are forbidden!”

“What?!”

The slaves protested. A rule is a rule, and nothing they said would change that. I needed fighting power, not a solution to declining birth rates. I didn’t have time to look after a bunch of new parents and all the little brats they were popping out. Besides, we only had three and a half months! There wasn’t even time to pop anything out!

“You can waste your time on that kind of rubbish when your world is peaceful and I’m gone.”