Fresh Fish

During the festivities my device chirped at me from my pocket, letting me know Rapunzel had been captured. That left less than a day for Gothel. I hoped Rapunzel wouldn't do something to cause Gothel to do something drastic before her capture, but if I got back to find her severed arm with a bracelet left behind I wouldn't be too upset.

I ducked out to a balcony to have some privacy and used my bracelet to check what Rapunzel's capture had given me. Eight credits putting me at ten, but no rebates yet. Yet, because she had a bunch of defenses. Wild, Creature, Stress, Drain, and Fatality Defense was a lot for one person. Though the fact that she also happened to be a tier six healer capable of resurrection and a combatant to boot was what made this girl invaluable. I also had a pop-up waiting.

Rapunzel Captured: Milestone reward, Normalcy and Time-Savers (group)

Well that was a fantastic reward. Now anything I did with my retinue would be seen as perfectly normal and it even granted the required Sexual Calibration along with it, and I'd been thinking of buying that one anyways what with the growing numbers in my harem. Time Savers was a nice quality-of-life perk as well. I wasn't getting a huge amount of credits with these captures, but the rewards were really starting to add up. Twenty-two credits worth for these three alone.

An arm circled my waist as Hilde wormed her way into the circle of my arms. "Is everything alright?" She wanted to know.

"No problem, the girl in the tower was just captured and I got some nice rewards for it."

She looked curious. "Oh? Like the everlasting youth from Snow?"

I laughed at her evident greed. "Nothing so grand I'm afraid, these are more minor benefits but a lot of them all at once. Never getting tired during or sore from sex is one you might really appreciate though."

"Oh that does sound nice, especially when I have to go back to sharing you."

I gave her a deep kiss, her boundless lust was one of her best traits. If I ever bought Aggressive Initiations, and I really should soon, I could just leave her to break in the new girls in no time. "That's another thing, we shouldn't have to break up the group anymore."

"How so?"

"What I do with my retinue will now appear normal to outsiders. If I choose to have you suck my dick on the ballroom floor no one will bat an eye. Though they may still applaud your skill." I leered at my lusty Queen, who blushed at the thought.

"Can we please not? They might see it as normal but I would still be terribly embarrassed."

"That's fine. But you still need to keep up the appearance of drinking a lot."

She nodded after a brief kiss on my lips. "Yes my Lord, I must be 'indisposed' by morning so my gallant husband will stay by my side, even though that means missing the sailing of the fleet. Oh, such a pity." She grinned at me impishly.

I booped her cute nose. "Exactly right. But for now let us go back to dance while you still can and make every man here jealous that you are mine."

"And every woman that I am with you. I see the looks Master. You could pass out a dozen bracelets here easily, and every vapid fool would confess their love to you by morning."

I laughed at her petty irritation that they wanted what they thought was hers. "Not a one of them is worth half of what you are to me. Come, let us dance."

And I swept Hilde back into the ballroom on my arm, glad that my Persona knew how to dance and dance well.

.

The next morning I was standing on a small rise overlooking a section of beach. I had all of my girls with me, including Cassandra, save the two in the tower.

I turned back to Hilde from looking out over the water, where massive black clouds could be seen brewing. She was standing in front of her mirror staring at its bronze surface at something none of us could see. "So is this it?" I asked her.

"Maybe." She turned to Ruby. "Would you run down to that large chunk of driftwood there?" She pointed to what looked like most of a tree just beyond the waves. Ruby shrugged and loped off at a good pace. Cassandra was probably the more athletic of the two, but I'd lay odds that Ruby would win a foot race between them.

As Ruby waved back from the driftwood Hilde turned back to her mirror and nodded. "Yes, this is the place. That is where she will drag him out of the water and we can intercept her." We both looked out to sea as the dark clouds began to rain down lightning. "Not long now I wager."

I put the mirror back away in my extra-dimensional space while Ruby ran back to us. Hilde had the bundled net at her feet as she stood with staff in hand. As Ruby joined us Snow handed her back her bow. "You are sure about this my Lord?"

I pulled out my own bow. "I am, look for an albatross watching the girl. Shoot it as soon as she's captured."

Cassandra shook her head again. "That's terribly bad luck you know."

I nodded. "I know, but we are not on a ship, and it would be far, far worse luck to let word get back of her abduction. As it is the whole coastline may suffer, but hopefully her father will have no idea what happened or where."

The dark-haired soldier grimaced but shrugged. "If she's the danger to the Prince you say, we do what we must."

I gestured at the storm raking the ocean where we knew the celebration fleet to be. "You can see what she's capable of, which is why we face her here, out of her element." Cassandra had only half a day left of freedom, she could learn the truth later.

"Now Snow, Ella." Hilde called quietly and the two maids uncorked the bottles they had been holding, letting a thick fog roll out quickly obscuring us, yet we could see through it easily. Apparently these fogs occurred naturally in the Enchanted Forest near Germonia and Hilde knew how to harness them to her use.

Suddenly Ruby drew back her bow, and as I looked, I spotted it as well, a single seagull circling something in the water. The powerful swimmer dragging the Prince's body was soon clear as well. With astonishing swiftness, to someone who didn't know just how fast a mermaid could swim, she had him to shore and propped his **** form against the tree in the surf.

With a flick of her staff, Hilde's rope net launched itself towards the redhead in the water. At that signal Ruby and I loosed, both arrows transfixed the bird mid-flight. The mermaid looked up in horror at her falling feathery friend, then turned to look where the arrows had come from, and seeing only fog turned to dash back into the ocean. She most definitely didn't see the net coming.

It had spread out into a wide oval mesh in the air and honed in on her as it fell, splashing into the water as she dove for safety. We rushed the beach, I still had my bow in hand. If a shot meant the difference between capture and her escape I'd take it and hope we could get her to a healer.

I needn't have worried though, with a flick of her staff Hilde hauled the net up out of the water, and tangled in it was our red-headed swimmer. She was screaming out in a language of clicks and whistles that thanks to our bracelets we could understand. "Let me go! Please don't do..." She was cut off as Hilde manipulated the rope to gag her.

Cassandra gasped at Ariel's muscular green tail. "An actual mermaid. I'll be damned." I nodded at her and she reached in to hold one of the pale, thrashing arms still so I could clamp a bracelet on it.

Eric was waking up by this point, and a boat with some of his men in it had even beached nearby, with them now running towards us. I clasped him on the shoulder. "Glad you're still with us. Luckily I had some warning about today's adventures and was able to counter her ambush with my own."

"Who is she?" He asked, staring at her as he raised a hand to his undoubtedly sore head.

I gave him a lift to his feet as his men arrived. "A bounty I mean to collect and one that meant you ill, but we can talk all about it back at the palace." Ariel weighed quite a bit in this form, but I still managed to sling her over my shoulder. The bound woman still tried to scream and struggle in her bounds but I was fine with that. She'd probably take the full week to convert, but I was okay with that too.

I had four Princesses in hand, now it was time to go make plans for the fifth. And the dragon guarding her.