I was talked about really well from most people in the army. Everyone had a high opinion of my skills. Whether as a combatant or a medic, I was doing quite a lot for their war effort. There was a lot of xenophobia though. All 3 of the heroes stood up for me. I told Wang Jing that one of the tasks he had was making some temples for me. "I thought you and Analim wanted to be War gods together." he said. "He decided against it. Erect a temple for my centaur form in my honor." I replied. He sighed before nodding. He announced it the next day. It would be in the Southwest near where I first appeared. He also announced that he was going to dedicate 2 brand new temples to both Justice and Fortitude in the capitol. Analim was able to create all of the art for the 3 temples. He was the best candidate for the job and it was decidedly cheaper than hiring any other artists. It took a few in-game years to get them all up and fully operational. Huo, Zhizhu and Hong were all 8 years old and so was Crown Princess Yi. Princess An, Princess Li, Prince Huo were 7. Prince Min was already 6 years old.
Shuren the Heavenly Spear was one of the 3 heroes of Ki Town. I had convinced Wang Jing to pay him to serve as a martial arts instructor for Huo, Zhizhu and Hong. As the news went around, both Chuan Min and Lai Chang wanted to employ someone special through the Imperial treasury. Chuan Min had a master musician come to instruct Princess Li. Beauty Lai Chang employed Xuefeng the Celestial Lance for Prince Min. It was a difference in the expectation between a male and female royal. He would also try to go down the martial route. It was very unlikely that Min would ascend to the throne, but he could at least be a useful general or military strategist. There was also Cui Yahui, our new Empress. While going on the obligatory dates with his new concubines, he genuinely fell in love with one of them. He married her and they had 2 children: Prince Ruogang and Princess Zan. It was pretty clear that the 3 year old Ruogang would be the new Crown Prince. 2 year old Zan only cemented that. It was only sentimentality that allowed Yi to keep her crown. That would soon change.
The royal children were allowed to live with their mothers in the Forbidden City. Since they were all given milkmaids, they also had milk kinship with other children as well for companions. Crown Princess Yi had Analim as an instructor for the arts and religious instruction. Bo was the milk brother of both Zhizhu and Hong. Hou's milk brother was named Tai. The 5 boys were pretty close as I made sure to keep the princes humble. Because of this the princes were more rough and tumble compared to the younger Min or Ruogang. Even with them being smaller, their noble parents kept them apart and raised them to be elite from the very beginning. The princesses were all stereotypically prim and proper. Wang Jing was now 21 years old and became a full fledged adult. Analim's wings had lightened up even more. Being patient, dutifully teaching and focusing on his art was beneficial for him. His wings were still pretty gray however. I was not under a delusion that he would be taken back. Analim needed to believe it, but I did not have to share the opinion. I was not going to tell him though.
Unless some special circumstance happened for him, he was going to be here for the rest of the game. Something that I was very keen on was visiting my other children every so often. When I was in centaur form, I had 3 kids with female admirers. 1 was a girl, 1 was a boy and the third was a hermaphrodite. The children were humanoid with certain horse features. They had furred hooves for feet and a horse's tail and ears. Because of their very clear deformity, they were not looked on favorably by the others in their communities. They certainly were not conventionally attractive any way you looked at it. I made sure to check up on them every so often. I gave them each a generous 5 Adamantium arrows from my quiver and bought top of the line bows for them when they grew up and could wield them. If they specialized in the Bow, they could be pretty powerful. Other than that, they could do as they wanted. I was pretty sure that they could do anything they wanted to since they were already starting out with high stats. They were my children after all. More children was a good thing for me.
