While we prepared for the coming battle, or maybe even war, I was also planning something more personal. My wedding.

  The truth was, there was only so much I could do to prepare for a demon lord assault. I did help our maids with their training, I did attend any relevant meetings, but I was no general. I was no expert on warfare. Iris was our general and Lilith had a lot more experience fighting demons. I helped where I could but in the end I let the professionals do their job.

  That left me with some time on my own. One of my personal projects was the wedding ring. I used my extensive knowledge of runes to tinker with it. It had the ability to conjure a force armour, essentially an armour formed of magic. I wanted it to work with Lucy's transformation so she could use it to protect herself as a fox. It would be of limited use, since her hide was tougher anyway but additional protection never hurt.

  Besides the beneficial effect I wanted something else: Magical underwear. Not because it was especially comfortable or practical, our spidersilk garments were rather magical already. No, I thought about the idea to conjure a translucent negligee rather appealing. Of course, the ring would still work for its original purpose and could deploy proper armour for her humanoid form.

  It would be the perfect ring. Beautiful to look at, an effect to help keep her safe and some added fun for private moments. I got some help from our smith, he had designed the shifting maid armour after all.

  Besides the ring there were other things to consider, like invitations. I personally disliked massive events. I preferred something a lot more personal. Being a countess and an archfey complicated things. Would other important people see it a slight if they were not invited?

  Did I care? I sighed. Life was simpler if you were unknown. Then again, I did enjoy all the comfort my powers had granted me. And I certainly liked my strong and eternally youthful body. Being able to eat as much as I liked was heavenly…

  Food! I certainly would need great food for a wedding. Maybe I should write the fancy restaurant from the former Empire, if it still existed. While thinking about food I started doodling wedding cakes. I definitely wanted a big and tasty one. I snickered as I drew a rather large tower.

  Looking at the tower it reminded me of something in my old life. It reminded me of a game with lightning towers.

  Lightning towers! Why did we not have magical defense towers? We had a grove with an electrical root network and I was a storm fey.

  I sprang up and started pacing while my mind worked. I would need a way to target someone. Maybe we could have a person controlling them? It would be important to only hit enemies. Also, the root network did not have infinite power. But what about magical crystals? The towers could store magic, or spells. We could charge them with the network and have a certain amount stored up for the battle. Sure, during a long fight we would run out, just like any spellcaster would run out of spells. Maybe lower tier mages could help charge the towers and make a larger impact…

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  I grabbed some more paper and started sketching runes. Designing those towers should be doable, the materials might be problematic. Then again, I still had a lot in my personal storage amulet. Maybe it was time to unload my hoard of gems and other things I did not need. We would need a lot of magical metals from the dwarves though but I had connections.

  Getting a bit excited about the idea I almost ran to our smith.

  "Tyrell, I have an idea!" I announced while storming into his forge.

  The smith was hammering on something and did not even bother to turn around. "Of course you do. What is this time? Are you adding a butler division to your maids?"

  I blinked. "Actually, not the worst idea… Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. I want to build magical lightning towers!"

  He turned around and faced me. "What?"

  "Towers that shoot lightning!" I said, enthusiastically.

  "Enchanted towers? Hm, doable. Likely expensive but I could see the benefits. I would have suggested some magical ballistas, catapults,... Traditional siege equipment. You throw an enchanted bomb towards a group of enemies it's gonna hurt." He replied.

  I scratched my head. "Huh. Why don't we have such things?"

  Tyrell snorted. "Course you rule a small town."

  "Hm. I don't think Lilith has them either."

  "She is fighting bloody demons down there. A lot of them fly, or are giant monsters. Her succubi can use magic themselves. Warfare is a bit different down there I imagine." Tyrell replied.

  "Anyway, my towers. Lightning is great! It does not care if you fly or walk. It is pretty fast. It should work against demons just fine." I said.

  "True. So you want towers in hell? Hm. Your grove is not that big there." He pointed out.

  "Haruka is there! She is amazing! I should feed her more snacks though…" I mused.

  Tyrell shrugged. "So you are bothering me why, exactly? I have got armour and weapons to make."

  "I can design the magic but I need help with the towers. You know a lot more about magical weapons than I do." I said.

  "I am a smith, not an architect." He replied.

  "Sure, sure. We can get an architect involved. But you can help me with the important bits." I pulled out sheets of papers and spread them on an empty worktable.

  Tyrell sighed and walked over.

  "See. The outer tower just needs to be sturdy to protect the inside. We could use stone, metal, anything durable really. Inside we need a crystal. I will carve the spell runes into them. Essentially it will be like a long magical staff. At the bottom we connect them to the root network if possible. If not we can charge them gradually by using spell slots every day. We can store a certain number of attacks in advance…"

  "Why is there a kitsune eating that tower?" He pointed at one of my doodles. I quickly snatched it from his hand.

  "That one is unrelated." I assured him.

  "Your idea could work. If you simply need me to forge a number of magical staffs, I can do that. It means someone would have to stand at the top, grasp the staff part and use it like a magical item. If you provide the materials we can try it." He replied.

  I grinned. The design was not finalised yet but project lighting tower was a go! Hopefully we could finish a few before the war started. And it gave me another way to help prepare our defences. I guess my wedding planning had to wait, for now.