Alex took one slow deep breath, and cleared his mind, enjoying the heat of the water. After some minutes, the Viscount convinced them to go to the swimming pool, because if they relaxed too much in the hot spring, the diner was going to be short, because they would be too sleepy to fully enjoy it.
Alex followed them with some Nobles quickly exiting the pond to follow the King while others stayed in the hot water with their eyes closed and a face of pure bliss.
In the changing room, they quickly put on the bodysuit that was similar to the ones available for women, with only some extra fabric in the groins. After going through the door that led to the swimming pool, Alex saw Wenammy waving at him, seated on the edge of the pool with Ghar at her side, gathering a lot of marvelled looks by the Rabbit-kind girls and the wives of the Nobles, because of her six multicoloured wings. The noise of a splat made him look to the pool, and he saw Anika jumping out the water and making a flip, diving again, completely naked. Alex couldn’t avoid a smile because she looked like a dolphin, having fun in the water.
The King joined his daughter and the others that were in the lowest part of the pool with water till their chest, and Alex dived to the deepest part, making everyone stare at him because knowing how to swim and how to dive was not a well-spread knowledge.
Underwater, Anika smiled at Alex and swam around him, letting him take a good look. She asked while pointing with her open palms to her body:
“You like what you see, don’t you? I don’t only have a pretty tail, my upper half is also nice, with pretty breasts and smooth skin. I bet you are having a hard time not grabbing me, right?”
She took his hands and went to the bottom, and in there, away from any prying eyes, she kissed him. Alex felt her Magic flowing from her tongue to his, and when she let him go, he wondered how much time had passed since he dived. Anika guessed by his puzzled look what he was thinking and explained:
“I gave you a little bit of my Magic, and now you can breathe underwater, for far more time than you would ever be able, with your Magic. Try to breathe and don’t be afraid, no water will go to your lungs.”
Alex took one slow deep breath, and not even one drop of water went to his mouth. It was as if he had a filter preventing the water from going in. He tried to speak, and was surprised for hearing his voice:
“This is so weird! And so cool! I am like a fish!”
While Alex was swimming around Anika, she smiled:
“Yes, a pretty fish that I love. Wenammy might be able to make you fly, and Pearl can perhaps show you a few things as well, but only I can do this.”
“Wait, Wenammy can make me fly? How? I normally use Wind Magic, but I am not very good and Shinatobe has to keep one eye on me so that I don’t crash on the ground.”
Anika shrugged:
“I think she can at least carry you. I bet she will show you her tiny Fairy form to make you go crazy with how cute she looks like that. What about if we stopped talking and did a lot more kissing?”
“Better not, you heard them, today I am to be left alone. If they find out you already kissed me and are trying to seduce me underwater, they will get mad.”
“I think they already found out, considering how long you dived. Well, what about if you hold my hand and we go for a friendly swim?”
Without waiting for his answer, Anika grabbed Alex’s right hand and pulled him. She slowly increased her speed and swam in large circles and when she shot straight to the surface with him at her side, they jumped out of the water and did a couple of flips before hitting the water again. Alex escaped from Anika when they dived and swam to the edge, going to meet Ghar that was waving at him, with an awkward smiling Gabriel Dawson. Alex noticed the redness on the light brown cheeks of Ghar and the way that Gabriel was glancing at her and asked:
“What you two love birds are doing on this side, all alone? I am getting a strange impression that I am interrupting something!”
Olive’s voice was heard from Ghar’s necklace:
“No… We… were just talking. Gabriel is funny, and… yeah, just talking.”
Alex made a slight frown:
“You know, Olive, hearing your voice talking when in fact is Ghar answering, is a bit weird. Can’t you at least change your voice a little? It would be easier if you could, maybe with a soft tone, or…”
The voice changed completely, and sounded deeper and lower, in a sexier way:
“What about this? I guess it suits Ghar, considering she is a strong woman with an enormous sex appeal. Hearing her sounding like this makes you want to kill someone just to be with her, right?”
Alex smiled and Gabriel spoke while staring at Ghar, almost drooling:
“Yeah, if she told me to kill someone with this voice, I wouldn’t even hesitate…”
Ghar looked at her feet underwater, even redder and with a slight smile hidden behind her turban:
“Thanks… I guess… I won’t ask you to kill anyone, but it’s nice to hear you… saying that…”
Alex swam backwards and said:
“I will leave you both alone, you seem to be just fine and there is a Princess that I need to be sure it’s not babbling more than she should.”
Alex turned his body around and crawled to the lowest part of the pool, where the Princess and her lady’s maid were surrounded by Nobles that were chatting among them, with her nodding with a slight smile every now and then. The King and Viscount Tom West were at a few meters from her, talking with a group of Nobles and their wives. Alex changed to a breaststroke so that he didn’t splash water over the Nobles, and the Princess asked with her eyes wide open:
“Where did you learn how to swim like that? I saw you using three different types already!”
“My father taught me when I was little. I know another one, but it’s more tiresome. Are you enjoying the pool, Princess? Is everything to your liking?”
The Princess opened her face in a big smile:
“Yes, everything is perfect! Now I know why my father said that this was his favourite place, but he never took me here because this is where he would escape to relax away from everything, even his family!”
“Well, he already brought the Queen here a couple of times, you and your sister were the only ones that never came with him. I guess he sometimes needs to not have to worry about maintaining his usually serious demeanour, and in here he can be left alone to his thoughts.”
The Princess signalled with her head to a serious-looking Fairy that was seated at the edge of the pool a few meters from her lady’s maid, together with an angry-looking Elfian that was crouched inside the pool with water till her breasts:
“Those two were looking at you ever since you jumped into the water and took forever to reappear. They seem angry. Are they jealous because you were swimming with the Mermaid?”
“Probably… I don’t know if it’s safer for me to remain here or to go talk with them.”
The Princess made an awkward smile:
“If… they like you as much as they seem to, you should go. It will be easier for you, believe me.”
Alex went past the lady’s maid in the direction of the edge and Wenammy looked troubled as she asked:
“Had fun underwater, Alex? Judging by your smile, you did something with Anika, didn’t you?”
“She was the one that did it, I was too surprised to react. She kissed me and gave me some of her Magic that allowed me to breathe underwater. I didn’t ask for that, but it was kind of cool, swimming with her without worrying about breathing. She did say you could be able to make me fly, and that you can change to a cute little form.”
Slowly changing her troubled face to a slight smile, Wenamy said:
“I can show you, one day. Or one night… if you want, that is…”
“I never saw a tiny Fairy, but I suppose you look cute like that. Did you already try this pool? Or you can’t get your wings wet?”
“They can get wet, but it’s better if I keep them rolled on my back if I go for a swim in here because they would become too mushy and difficult to dry up.”
Pearl Pearson spoke while cracking her knuckles underwater:
“Do you mind trying not to fall on Anika’s tricks? It’s bad enough that she forgot what we agreed about, you don’t need to give her so many openings, it’s not fair to us.”
“You are right, but you must understand that I am not so daring as she is, and she keeps on tricking me. When I notice, she is already grabbing or kissing me.”
Alex felt a gentle squeeze on his right hand underwater, and he saw the light golden hand of Pearl over his, and he got lost in her deep green eyes as she spoke:
“Your shyness and clumsiness are cute but think about us before letting her get near you. We are also interested in you, and it’s not fair if you don’t at least give us a fair shot to conquer you.”
Alex noticed that Pearl and Wenammy had watery eyes as if they were really sad. He slowly nodded and answered:
“I am happy that you both see me in that way, and I may not seem like it, but I am having a hard time believing my luck. Three gorgeous women, members of Magical Races that I dreamed about for so long and I became to admire, talking about wanting to be with me still seems too impossible to be true, and sometimes I fail to realize it’s actually happening. I want to know you three a little more, and perhaps after some time, I decide if I want one of you, or all three, if neither of you is worried about that possibility.”
Pearl and Wenammy smiled, and Alex felt a hug from behind and Anika’s voice spoke on his left ear:
“If you think it will be easier for you to have all of us instead of choosing only one, we already told you we are not worried about that. We just need to talk about some ground rules and see if we are all comfortable with them. Since you are only one, you need to think very carefully about those rules first, and we then can decide what we do. We will also think about some rules, and in a few days, we can talk about this again. How does that sound? Anyone objects?”
Alex felt his heart pumping like crazy, thanks to Anika’s hands around his chest, the gentle squeeze on his right hand from Pearl, and a soft caress underwater on his left thigh, from Wenammy’s foot. Alex made an awkward smile and asked:
“Are we going to make every decision by a vote? Because we will probably need someone else if we ever face a tie.”
Anika kissed his earlobe and said while smiling at Wenammy that was not pleased by seeing her so close to Alex:
“I suppose we won’t need another person unless you meet another interesting woman and none of us mind sharing you with her, or we meet another man to join our happy group.”
Pearl made a slight frown:
“I don’t need another man, only Alex will be enough for me. If I can also have some fun with Wenammy or you, it’s all good for me.”
Wenammy turned bright red and glanced at Pearl, while Anika answered:
“I am not too fancy of having that kind of fun with a woman, perhaps you can have Wenammy all for yourself while I take Alex, on one night. Or something in those terms. Those are the kind of ground rules we need to talk about. We can’t forget about Okami and Shinatobe, of course. I bet they will try to overrule any decision we make, so perhaps it would be good if only the women had a vote, and Alex just went with the flow.”
Alex was about to protest, but Anika bit his earlobe and said:
“Shut up, you don’t have a saying! Believe me when I tell you that you should always hear your women and do what they say if you want to have a happy life! So, what about if we got out from here and went for dinner? Because if I stay any longer near this hunk, I am going to drag him to the bottom and have my way with him!”
Wenammy used both feet to catch Alex’s left arm and pulled him to her:
“No way, you crazy Mermaid! We agreed that he was to be left alone today, and you already did a bunch of things to him! You can’t be trusted, it’s better if we go to the Castle, away from all this water so that I can keep an eye over you!”
While Alex and the three women were leaving the pool, one of the Nobles asked in a low voice:
“Princess, do you know who are those women? Because they look too much at ease with Earl Alex, and he didn’t seem to mind! The last time that I introduced him to my older daughter, he was about to run away at the first opportunity, and my daughter is really pretty! It was always so difficult to make him agree to meet girls at a marriable age and seeing him acting like that, I could almost think that they are all his wives!”
The Princess made an awkward smile and did a huge effort not to speak more than she should, because of what happened in the Castle:
“The King told me while we were travelling here that they went with Earl Alex to the Chamber of Lords, and he said in there they all liked him, and maybe he would choose one of them as his wife.”
The Noble looked surprised:
“Yes, I heard about that, but it seemed so impossible, a High Fairy appearing just like that in Beliersia, holding the arm of a mere Human! Considering who he is and what he accomplished so far at his age, it’s understandable that he caught the eye of a Mermaid, a High Fairy and an Elfian. I wonder who he will choose…”
The Princess pretended to be playing with the water in her hands while thinking about what Alex and her father told her in the Castle, that in the court of Bouria she could have a lot of problems if she didn’t learn how to read behind every word the Nobles said. Like that Noble tried to do. If he already knew about Anika, Wenammy and Pearl, why did he asked?
The Princess glanced at the Noble that was now chatting with another one about the three women, and she understood that he was probably trying to trick her on speaking about what was discussed in that room in the Castle, and her suspicions were confirmed when another Noble asked her if the King was feeling well because they left the dining room suddenly and went right to the hot spring. She avoided further interrogations by saying that the King was just eager to relax in the hot spring and that she was feeling hungry, and it was probably time to return to the Castle.