I Found a Door to the Elven Realm-Chapter 88: Breeding Initiative with Women of the Elven Village
Emily told him at breakfast and it was the exact opposite of Eren was waiting.
She waited until Rosa was outside practicing sword swings with Nimbo in the garden and until Selena’s restaurant was busy enough that nobody would walk in. Then she put her fork down and looked at Eren with that face she made when she’d already decided something and was just letting him know.
"The village needs children. I can’t give you any for nine months. Selena and Lyra volunteered."
Eren’s bread stopped halfway to his mouth.
"Volunteered for what exactly?"
Emily tilted her head like the answer was obvious. "To carry your children silly. What else?"
He put the bread down slowly. His brain tried to process this in a way that made sense and kept hitting walls. On Earth this conversation would end with someone throwing dishes and maybe a lawyer getting involved. Here Emily was saying it the same way she’d say "we’re low on firewood."
"You’re joking."
"Do I look like I’m joking?"
She didn’t. Her jaw was set and her eyes were steady and her hands were flat on the table. Emily’s joking face involved a tiny smile she couldn’t hide. This wasn’t that face.
"Emily I can’t just-"
"Listen to me." She leaned forward and her voice dropped. Not angry but serious in the way she got when she was explaining something about survival. "This village has a problem that existed before you got here. Every elf couple in this place is too closely related to have children. The last baby born was Nimbo and Mel and that was nineteen years ago. The women who want children can’t have them with the men here because they grew up together like siblings. There’s no attraction left between most of them and even if there was the genetics wouldn’t work."
Eren knew about the population problem. He’d seen it in the empty houses and the aging faces. But hearing Emily lay it out like this was different.
"And me being from Earth solves that?"
"You being from a completely different planet with zero shared genetics solves that. And your stats and bloodline make you the strongest candidate this village has seen in decades. Maybe ever." She picked up her fork again like the matter was settled. "This isn’t about pleasure mister. This is about whether there will be children playing in this village ten years from now."
She’s not wrong. I know she’s not wrong. But she’s also asking me to sleep with other women while she’s pregnant and sitting in the next room.
"There’s something else," Emily said. She wasn’t looking at him now. Her eyes were on the table. "The ban already started and it’s only been days. Your body is already not cooperating and it’s going to get worse for nine months."
"I can handle it."
Emily actually laughed at that. Short and sharp. "Eren your stats are past 47 on everything. Your half-elf hormones are already driving you insane. I can see it every time you look at me, at Rosa, even at Selena when she brings you food. In a week you won’t be able to focus on anything else. In two weeks you’ll be a mess. This isn’t about willpower. It’s biology."
He wanted to argue but couldn’t because she was right. The energy burning through his body every night wasn’t normal human frustration. It was something deeper that got worse with every level he gained. The training sessions in the forest at midnight weren’t just about not sleeping. They were about burning off something his body kept producing faster than he could spend it.
"I don’t like this," he said quietly.
"You think I do?" Emily’s voice cracked for just a second before she pulled it back under control. "You think I want to share my husband with anyone? I wanted you all to myself mister. I wanted to be the only woman who made you stupid. But this village will die without children and I can’t do it alone for nine months."
He reached across the table for her hand. She didn’t pull away this time. Her fingers closed around his and squeezed hard enough that a normal human would’ve yelped.
"One condition," Eren said.
Emily raised an eyebrow.
"If any of them want this arrangement then they’re with me and nobody else. No other men. I know that sounds selfish but I don’t want-"
Emily’s laugh interrupted him. This time it was real. "Silly. You think any woman in this village would say no to that? They’ve been hoping for exactly this since you showed up."
Well that’s both flattering and terrifying.
"Also," Emily added, "not yet. The village defenses need to be finished first. The northern barricade still has gaps and the eastern stakes aren’t done. I’m not sending you to Selena’s bed while kobolds might attack at midnight."
"So this is a... future arrangement."
"When the timing is right. Selena and Lyra know. They’ll wait." She squeezed his hand one more time and let go. "And Eren? Don’t make it weird."
"It’s already weird Emily."
"Then don’t make it weirder."
..
Rosa found out about the arrangement around lunch.
She’d been doing sword drills with Nimbo all morning and came back covered in sweat with her hair sticking to her forehead. Selena had made a simple lunch spread at the restaurant and everyone was eating together.
Emily told her casually while they were sitting at the table. Just dropped it into conversation between bites of bread like it was village gossip instead of the most insane relationship announcement Eren had ever witnessed.
Rosa’s fork stopped moving. She looked at Eren, then at Emily, then at Selena who was serving food with a very innocent expression, then at Lyra who was blushing furiously near the kitchen doorway.
"So you’re telling me," Rosa said slowly, "that you are officially letting your husband sleep with other women. To make babies. For the village."
"That’s correct," Emily said.
"While you’re pregnant."
"Yes."
"And living in the same house."
"Correct."
Rosa put her fork down and stared at Eren. "And this is normal here?"
Eren opened his mouth to answer but Emily beat him to it. "The village has had no children in nineteen years. Normal doesn’t mean what you think it means when a whole race is dying."
Rosa was quiet for about five seconds which was the longest Eren had ever seen her not talk. Then she turned back to Eren. "So you’re going to be with elf women, your pregnant wife lives with you and you just brought me here from Earth three weeks ago. And all of this is just... the plan?"
"...Yes?"
Rosa looked at the ceiling like she was asking God or the Evon equivalent for patience. "I need to talk to whoever designed this world’s rules. Seriously."
Selena laughed from behind the counter and Rosa shot her a look that said she wasn’t entirely joking.
But Rosa didn’t explode. She didn’t storm out. She sat there for a moment and Eren could see her brain working through it the way she worked through everything, logically and from multiple angles even when the angles were insane. She was an internet generation woman who’d grown up reading about every culture and relationship structure on the planet. This wasn’t normal by Earth standards but Rosa wasn’t evaluating by Earth standards anymore.
"I’m still your girlfriend," she said finally. Not to Emily. To Eren. Her voice was flat and her eyes were serious.
"Rosa-" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
"I didn’t ask for a discussion. I’m telling you." She picked her fork back up. "Your family back home still thinks we’re engaged. I came to another planet for you. I’m not becoming number three in a list."
Emily watched this exchange with a face that Eren couldn’t read at all. She didn’t respond to Rosa directly. She just took another bite and kept eating.
The tension at that table could’ve been cut with one of Mel’s daggers. But nobody drew blood. At least not today.
These two are going to be the death of me. Not the dragon, not the trolls. These two.
..
That afternoon Rosa kissed him.
It happened fast. She’d been sitting on the living room couch after lunch and Eren walked past on his way to grab his scimitars. She pulled his sleeve, he leaned down to ask what she wanted and she pressed her lips against his for maybe two seconds before letting go and standing up.
"That’s so I don’t forget," she said. Then she grabbed her hunting knife and walked out to find Nimbo for afternoon training like nothing happened.
Eren stood in the living room touching his mouth for longer than he wanted to admit.
Yeah. I’m in trouble.
He needed to clear his head. The only way that worked was violence.
..
He went hunting alone northeast past the troll territory.
His body was grateful for the fight immediately. The first group was five kobolds scouting near the river and he cut through them in under a minute. The second was a pair of regular trolls that went down so fast he barely broke a sweat.
His stats at 50+ across the board made these Level 15-20 creatures feel like punching bags in an arcade.
He kept moving deeper. Found a cluster of eight kobolds with two that were bigger and armored differently. Leaders maybe. He fought them all at once and it took three minutes and one minor cut on his forearm that healed before he finished wiping his blades.
[You gained 100% energy of Kobold Scout (Level 16)]
After the second kobold dropped dead, he stopped and looked at his hands. They weren’t even shaking.
He walked over to a thick pine tree about as thick as half of their house and punched it. Not a wind-up movie punch but a quick jab like he was testing a bag at the gym. The trunk cracked clean through and the top half of the tree toppled sideways into the undergrowth.
Okay. That’s new.
He was snapping trunks with a jab. He tried a thicker one, about as wide as a dinner plate, and this time he kicked it. The tree bent, cracked at the base and fell with a sound like a gunshot.
There was a boulder near the riverbank that looked like it weighed maybe two hundred kilos. He crouched next to it, got his fingers under the edge and lifted. It came off the ground like he was picking up a suitcase. Heavy but manageable. He shifted his grip, turned his hips like he was doing a discus throw and launched it toward the river.
The boulder flew about fifteen meters before crashing into the water and sending a wave across the surface that soaked the opposite bank.
This is insane and I probably don’t even use my whole potential. I could flip a car right now. Maybe two cars if I got the angle right.
He flexed his fingers and felt the muscles in his forearms respond with a speed and precision that still surprised him. Every movement felt sharp and clean like his body had been tuned by a mechanic who actually knew what they were doing. Back on Earth he’d been the kind of guy who got winded climbing four flights of stairs to his apartment. Now he was throwing boulders for fun.
The contrast was stupid. The whole thing was stupid. And he loved every second of it.
