We left the others behind, to go speak with Ars, on the way I couldn't help but to look at Elia. Even behind the mask everything pointed to her looking absolutely beautiful, I couldn't help but to ask.
"Why do you risk your position in his majesty's heart by doing this, you have nothing to gain from it… And I'm just curious and you don't need to answer if you don't want to, but why the mask?"
She looked at me and smiled, then looked in front of her, when I thought she was going to leave me guessing, she answered.
"Because for me… His majesty's well being is above everything else… Including my own… "
She stopped talking for a few seconds before explaining.
"You might not know, but this part it's not a secret, until a few days ago my body was completely disfigured. It was the master that healed me, that saved me, that gave me hope… So I decided that I would put his needs and wishes above myself. If you want you can become one. The reason I'm still using the mask is simple, I'm used to it and in the end it doesn't attract as many problems."
When we were arriving she looked at me and commented lightly.
"If you want to become even more beautiful, give your heart to his majesty, not romantically, i mean you can but you don't need to, i mean putting your loyalty for his majesty above everything and ask him if he can help you change your appearance, he will explain what you need to do, and if you accept, you will get the appearance you wish for. "
I nodded and thought to myself if just my loyalty is enough I don't see why not, after all, I was already very loyal to him, so in the future I might ask him to change a few things about me.
When we arrived at his house she opened the door and let me in, apparently she had permission to enter without knocking. Once inside we quickly found Ars reading a few papers.
Koral pov end…
Ars looked at them with curiosity, Koral looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated, since Elia was here too he asked her to make some tea.
As she was going Koral almost looked panicked, Ars was confused, what had happened for her to be this nervous near him… This had never happened before. He was curious but didn't press her for answers, since she got more panicked when Elia left, then when she came back Koral would calm down.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Elia came back, and Koral visibly relaxed, the more Ars thought about it the more curious he became.
When Elia saw that Koral intended to let her be the one making the request she didn't even hesitate.
"Your majesty, the people that respond to you and who we think you are on friendly terms, grouped up, and we reached a conclusion."
Ars was confused, so he asked jokingly.
"Did I do something wrong and now you want me to stop being the king or something like that?"
Elia shook her head and responded quickly.
"Of course not! We simply decided that it would be good for you to get a few wives who will help you manage the kingdom, a decent sized harem will do your majesty, and we also would like you to get a few heirs as fast as you could."
Koral, who was drinking tea, spouted out most of the tea in her mouth through her mouth and nose, before starting coughing, that had been way to direct, Elia on the other hand didn't even change expressions, like she had just commented on the weather.
Ars was speechless, he looked at them and asked.
"Are you both serious?"
Here they were with such a crazy request, they knew he had no intentions of having children for now, it was too early.
Until now he was undecided if he wanted a harem, or just one queen, but since they decided for him, he didn't need to worry about it anymore.
He looked at them amused and responded.
" I accept the harem request and I will have children, but not yet."
They both nodded and felt relieved he wasn't mad.
Elia very calmly asked.
"Does your majesty have any idea of potential candidates? It would be good if we got talented queens."
Ars nodded, and replied.
"I have a few in mind… And in the future I will probably add a few."
Elia, looking a little bit embarrassed for the first time since they arrived, asked.
"Can I be included in the list? While I don't mind not being a queen, I would like to keep my current relationship with master."
Ars just smiled and nodded at her.
Koral was happy, Ars had accepted their request without causing problems for them. She was trying to imagine who the future queens were, but the only conclusion she got to was that they would be beauties.
Ars, intended to warn everyone he was going to go missing for a few days.
He intended to evolve a little more, and this time if everything went right he would get several abilities on top of the increased potential.
However, during the night he got some unexpected visits, Kuma and Ginny with their cloaks to hide their identities, they had brought a bunch of samples, and with them came Bonney, now with the same disease her mother previously had, not that advanced but it was active and hurting her.
Ars approached the ship, still half asleep, and waved at them, Kuma and Ginny didn't exactly wave back, they were too worried about Bonney, and instead rushed towards Ars.
Ginny completely panicked and distraught, basically forced the sleeping Bonney on his arms, and begged.
"Please help her… She got sick with the same disease that I had. I knew it would probably happen in the future, but I was hoping that she was a little older and not a child."
Ars looked at Ginny, and very calmly answered.
"Calm down, she is fine, the sickness barely affects her for now…"
Kuma, with a worried face, but calmer, apologized.
"Sorry to interrupt your night, waking you up."
Ars smiled but chose to dismiss it, after all, he wasn't angry.
Looking at Ginny, who was still prancing around nervously, he decided to invite them to his house so they could relax a bit more.
" First let's go to my house, this is not exactly a good place to talk."
When they arrived, Elia welcomed them, she had heard the commotion and asked one of the guards what had happened, and when she heard there were visits, she instantly went to prepare snacks and tea.
She looked at Ars annoyed, and commented.
"Normally, the one informed about guests should be me, and only if the situation demands it, would you be woken up, It is my role as the head maid."
Ars smiled, and nodded before answering.
"Next time we will do it like that."
Elia looked at the guests and introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Sunhalo Elia and I'm the head maid, unofficially, since we don't have a palace yet, but I will be in the future."
They nodded and Kuma introduced themselves to her.
"I'm Kuma…"
Then he pointed at Ginny.
"This is Ginny and the girl in his arms is bonney."
Elia didn't want to be rude to the guests, but she didn't like the fact that they didn't refer to her master as his majesty, making her uncomfortable.
She knew his majesty didn't care about it so she didn't point it out, she believed that since they came to their kingdom with a request, they should show proper etiquette.
Kuma noticed her face and realized something was off. He looked at her, smiled and asked her.
"By the way you're acting, you seem unhappy about something…"
Ars laughed at Elia, confusing everyone, then back at everyone else and explained.
"She is quite easy to read isn't she? She tries her best to stay composed, but the way she acts always shows her discomfort. I find it quite adorable! When she isn't wearing a mask, she is pretty bad at hiding her emotions on her face too."
Now, even with a mask everyone could see steam coming out of her face, then Ginny teased her even further.
"Someone is very interested in her king…"
Elia started fidgeting around even more, before Ars introduced her with another title.
"Well… She is probably gonna be a member of my group of queens, so right now she could count as a fiance."
Elia was so happy that she fainted from excitement, much to the surprise of everyone. Ars laughed, picked her up and laid her on his bed before coming back to talk with them.
Ars sat in front of them and started.
"Sorry for making you guys wait. So should we negotiate the price for me to heal her?"
Ginny looked at Ars and returned the question.
"Couldn't you do it for free? I mean since you managed to treat me you could also treat her easily. There is also the fact that we are giving you a lot of blood samples, and quite a few from people with unusual physiques, from different races and a lot of akuma no mi users… That should count for something. She is also a child, and I doubt that you will let her leave while sick…"
Ginny said the last part full of confidence, and she wasn't wrong. Ars would hate the idea of Bonney dying from the lack of treatment, something that would be easy for him to provide.
He looked at Ginny and answered calmly.
"You know that the blood samples were payment for your treatment, and we all agreed on it."
Ginny reluctantly agreed with Ars, and Kuma looked at him and asked directly.
"What would you like as payment?"
Ars looked at Ginny and explained.
"You might think the disease is easy to cure, but other than me, in the entire world, you might find 1 or 2 people that maybe will be able to cure it. The one you are most likely to find is associated with the world government, you might know of him, Dr. Vegapunk, he could help but it would take resources and probably one of you would get taken by the world government on their human experiments as payment. And the other one, that I could think of, I'm not sure if she can heal it. So that leaves me, and even if you guys consider it expensive, it will come with less problems than if you go to Vegapunk."
Ars finally looked at Kuma and answered.
"I don't know yet, that's why we are talking, isn't it?"
Ginny sighed and added with a depressed face.
"We know that Vegapunk could help… But as you said, the price would be too steep for us, since he is under the constant watch of the world government, making it nearly impossible for them to not notice us if he helps Bonney… And one of the thousand of samples you got is from him."
She stopped speaking, got up, and sat on Ars side and explained.
"Last time, you said I could work for you for the rest of my life as payment, but I don't wish to stay away from my family, and if I stayed what would I be doing? "
Ars thought about it for a few minutes…
She was right, there wasn't much for her to do, other than odd jobs on the island for now.
In the future when the other side was starting, he could use the help, since she was a commander and had experience commanding people. But for now he couldn't really say.
'Hey, I'm creating an entire planet and I would like you to help me manage one of my future cities there…'
Maybe in the future they could cooperate, after all the new planet would be the best place for them to hide themselves and any recovered slave, or prisoner.
Both sides would win. He would get more people and they would get a super hidden safe place.