Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 24, That Night
Barker and his brothers immediately rushed forward, but Cesar frowned in impatience. “Don’t get so close to me. Don’t let me become the center of attention. Low-key, low-key!” The five brothers could only grin awkwardly as they greeted Cesar from far away.
“Gurgle.”
As he sampled the wine, Cesar went hiding into a corner of the room. Whenever he encountered the envoys of the kings and Empires, he would toast them, not putting on any airs of being a Deity at all.
“Cesar.” Suddenly, a cold voice rang out.
Cesar turned. An awkward smile couldn’t help but to appear on his face. The person who had spoken was the Holy Lady of the Frost Goddess Shrine, Rosarie. Rosarie stared at Cesar. She snorted a few times, but she didn’t say anything else. Being stared daggers at like this, Cesar couldn’t do anything except grin stupidly.
“You’ve already become a Deity, but you still act like this.” A hint of moisture seemed to appear in the eyes of Rosarie, the icy beauty.
Cesar squeezed out a smile. “Rosarie, aren’t you having a wonderful time being the Holy Lady? Alas, I’m just a wastrel who wanders all over the place. I go wherever I like and do what I like. I can’t take good care of you.” Cesar felt some misery in his heart.
“Lord Cesar.” Linley saw Cesar as well.
“Don’t go.” Desri held Linley back, a ‘nasty’ little smirk on his face. “Why are you going to get between those two lovebirds?”
“Lovebirds? Isn’t she the Holy Lady?” Linley was stunned.
“Who says a Holy Lady can’t have a man?” Desri glanced at Linley. “Rosarie is almost at the Deity-level herself. For her to continue working on behalf of the Frost Goddess Shrine is already giving it quite a bit of face.” Desri grinned as he watched Cesar and Rosarie from afar.
Linley exchanged amused glances with Delia. “Linley, so this is the Lord Cesar you spoke of?” Linley nodded.
“It seems this Deity has incurred a romantic debt.” Delia pursed her lips as she laughed, and Linley shook his head as well. “Lord Cesar, he, uh...how should I put this...he’s quite the dissolute romantic.”
This night was quite a festive one, especially Desri’s group. George, Yale, and Reynolds as well. By the time he greeted and chatted with everyone, it was already midnight. Only now did Linley head towards Delia’s room...
One of the benefits of being a Saint was that despite having drank an enormous amount of wine, Linley wasn’t drunk at all.
“Linley?”
He heard someone call his name before he even reached the door. Linley turned and saw Cesar lying on a couch and drinking wine. “Linley, how come you ended up getting married? Jeeze, after I heard you got married, I felt really sorry for you.”
“Really sorry?” Linley was stunned.
Cesar stood up, then flew over gracefully. “Really sorry! Yet another man has stepped into his tomb!” As he spoke, Cesar’s body flew high into the air. “Oh yeah, happy wedding. Alright, I’m off.” Cesar’s voice sounded in Linley’s ears.
Suddenly...
“You old lecher!” A clear sharp sound. A graceful, white-garbed figure flew into the air as well, chasing after Cesar.
Cesar’s flying speed instantly increased.
“Uh...maybe it’s better to be in the ‘tomb’.” Linley had a hint of a smile on his lips as he headed out. Soon, he arrived at the doorway to Delia’s room. There were two beautiful maids in front of it, and the two maids respectfully drew open the door.
Linley waved his hand at them. “You can go now.”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
In the dark room, the only person there was Delia, sitting quietly in front of her bed. She just looked at Linley, waiting for Linley to speak. And finally, Linley did speak...“Bebe. Get out.”
“Haha, Boss.” Bebe crawled out from beneath the bed.
“Bebe?” Delia didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Today, Bebe disappeared very early on. Who would’ve thought he had been hiding here?
Linley looked at Bebe, also not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. “Bebe, what are you doing?”
“Preparing a gift for ya, Boss!” Bebe raised his head high.
“What gift?” Linley was puzzled.
Bebe grinned, his little claws handing over a black rock. “This is something my good friend gave me. It was that violet-gold Saint-level rat that I told you about last time. I’m too young and haven’t accumulated much wealth, so my bro gave me this.”
“What is this?” Linley took the black stone in confusion. “Can it be some sort of rare or precious mineral? Can’t be. What use would a small piece of rock be anyhow?” Linley carefully inspected it, but couldn’t tell what it was.
“I don’t know either.” Bebe handed it to Delia. “Delia, personalize and soulbind it with blood.”
“Bind it with blood?” Linley raised an eyebrow.
Anything that needed to be bound by blood was definitely a treasure. For example, Linley’s Bloodviolet sword, or his Coiling Dragon ring. Even the adamantine heavy sword wasn’t worthy of needing to be blood bound. Generally speaking, only extremely rare and valuable items would require this process.
“Alright.” Delia trusted Bebe very much. A blade of air cut Delia’s finger, immediately creating a tiny wound.
A single drop of blood fell onto the black stone.
The black stone suddenly transformed into a ray of light and suddenly enveloped Delia. Linley was shocked...he watched as the black stone merged into Delia’s body and utterly vanished.
“What is going on?” Linley was shocked.
He had never seen anything as weird as this before. Bebe stared with a gaping jaw as well. “I have no idea.”
“Delia, how do you feel?” Linley immediately asked.
Delia shook her head, puzzled. “I don’t feel anything at all. Hmm...actually, it seems I can sense the nearby elemental essence much more clearly. Right. That’s it.” Linley secretly nodded. Generally speaking, even the vilest of items, once bound by blood, wouldn’t harm its master.
Linley wasn’t too worried about that.
But...what was that thing?
“Bebe, this black stone...why did that magical beast give it to you? This seems to be a treasure.” Linley asked. Of course, all they knew right now about this treasure was one thing; it could increase elemental essence affinity tremendously.
Bebe hurriedly shook his head. “Boss, honestly, that good friend of mine gave it to me. He said it is very useful to magi.”
“Very useful to magi?” Linley understood. Perhaps this was some sort of special object that could enhance elemental essence affinity. It was useless to Saint-level magical beasts, which is why he gave it to Bebe. But Linley had a feeling...
There was more than met the eye to this black stone!
“Alright, Bebe. Do you plan to stay here?” Linley stared at Bebe.
Bebe’s beady little eyes rolled, and then he rubbed his nose twice. “Boss, once you got a wife, you forgot about Bebe. Sniff.” Linley immediately sent a kick in his direction, but by then, Bebe had already disappeared in a flash as he left the room.
The door shut.
The room instantly turned quiet. Linley and Delia sat side by side on the bed.
“What are you looking at?” Delia was a bit shy right now.
Linley laughed. “I’m thinking...about how many kids we should have.” Delia was startled. Linley suddenly lifted Delia up and carried her over to the bed, and then...one piece of clothing after another came flying out from the bed.
.....
“Unngh...”
They hadn’t slept all night.
“Whew.” Linley lay there on the bed, with Delia resting on top of him, her head against Linley’s chest. Beads of sweat caused Delia’s fragrant hair to stick to Linley’s body. Linley lowered his head to look at Delia. That faintly red face looked like that of a kitten’s.
Her pert little nose was sniffling.
Linley’s hand gently stroked Delia’s slick, bare back. In his mind, he continued to savor what had happened just then. How nervous he had felt when he had entered Delia’s body...Linley had to admit, things had gotten just a little too wild just then. It had been three entire hours.
“Delia, what is it?”
“I want to cry.” Delia hugged Linley’s chest. “I just want to cry right now. When I think about how you and Alice were together, I want to cry. When I think about how I waited ten years, I want to cry. Sob.”
Linley held his head in his hands.
Women. It was impossible to understand them.
“Linley, can I tell you something?” Delia said softly.
“Hrm?” Linley lowered his head to look at Delia.
Delia raised her head to look at Linley. Her face serious, she said in a soft voice, “You...got hard, down there.”
“Uh?”
For a moment, Linley had no idea what to say.
“Delia, you know, Wharton and Nina’s kid is going to be born in a few months. Don’t you think the two of us need to work harder?” Linley whispered.
“Um?” Delia was startled.
“So, I need to keep at it.” Linley flipped over and pressed Delia down once again.