The room was quiet, Dante gazed at the woman in front of him, who calmly sipped her tea.
"Are you going to tell me why you called me here?" Dante questioned Aldria, who continued to sip her tea. Internally, she was furious about the conversation she had with Adam, but if he didn't want to save himself, she would try her best to help him.
"This message was sent to Adam recently. I thought it would be in your interest to know what's happening with Valentina," Aldria said, and Dante's eyes instinctively turned blood-red. The way Aldria spoke, it seemed like something bad was about to happen.
Well, she wasn't to blame. For her, having her empire erased wasn't the best news. However, for Dante, maybe it was one of the best news he received today.
"What about my Valentina?" He questioned sovereign, his calm tone of voice completely changed as Aldria observed him.
"So crazy... this man is truly in love with these women. I'm being affected from this distance by his mere speech," Aldria thought.
"Just listen, you'll understand," she said seriously, pushing back against the way he spoke. She was the empress, not a man like this who would intimidate her; she had to maintain her posture.
"Let's see then," Dante said as the same message from Vlad began to play in the magic sphere. Dante watched his words with a serious gaze.
Reality? He would love to go straight to the world of Nighsphere to find Vlad and take the damn cube back.
However, he couldn't do it now, and this left him in complete fury. "Damnation," he muttered, but then he heard Vlad begin to talk about Valentina.
"Valentina's Cube Prison is slowly breaking, there are already several cracks all over the cube. Honestly, if you want a guess...
She is training.
If I know that woman, she is at this moment breaking all her limits after overcoming grief, or perhaps she is using it as sheer driving force to become stronger.
She will seek revenge. Believe me when I say your empire will come to an end."
His eyes blinked twice. He thought it was bad news... well, of course, he quickly understood when he remembered that Aldria was the Empress of the Kingdom that Valentina wanted to erase.
He listened to those words and only felt one thing. "What a relief," he sighed loudly as he closed his eyes.
"She's okay," he said. Of course, he couldn't know for sure, but Valentina was so obsessed that she was training so much that when she came out, she wouldn't even recognize herself. Well, at least she thought so.
"That's all I wanted to show you. I hope you understand why I did this," Aldria said, and Dante nodded. "Your empire will be fine," he said and stood up.
"Tomorrow is the big day. Start getting ready," he commented and disappeared in flames. After he left, she said aloud:
"Argth... How difficult it is to work like this," Aldria said. Her thoughts were already turned to her husband, atrophied and in terrible condition.
"It's time to start letting go..." she sighed as she gazed at a photo of Adam on the wall.
'You should move on, I've lived much longer than a human should,' she heard his voice again in her head. Was love over? Well, not exactly.
"Maybe it's necessary for us to finally end things..." Aldria commented to the wind as she sat at her desk, lonely and tired.
"In the end, maybe he never got over that woman..." she lamented, opening one of her old albums. There, she saw a photo: a little blonde girl next to a tall, common blue-eyed blonde woman. Her simplicity was what won Adam's heart.
"Zayah, your daughter has grown well... now she's about to be like you, an infinite star ready to become a ruler. It's a pity she won't have either her father or her mother to support her," she said, and soon an old memory came to her mind.
"One day I won't be here. When that happens, stand by my little Vel," Zayah said as she watched the Kingdom from a small hill. "After all, you're my sister," she said, smiling.
However... a tear fell from Aldria's face. "Damn it! Why did you leave everything to your older sister!" She punched the table.
Aldria was beginning to have her internal conflicts affecting her Empress posture. Now, she wasn't the Empress anymore.
She was a woman, a woman who loved her older sister, and an aunt who didn't even tell her niece about herself.
"It seems she's really a complicated person," Vex said from afar, watching the scene alongside Dante.
"She's interesting indeed. Unfortunately, Adam didn't give her real value, but it's good to know she's Velryna's Aunt. I was planning on getting her as a subordinate anyway," Dante commented, and Aaralyn came out from beside him.
"Oh, you're here. I'm sure I gave you vacation," Dante said again.
"And I'm sure I already declined, master," she said.
"Oh, right, huh," Dante said. "Am I starting to be affected by the Awakening?" Dante questioned himself.
"Stop making excuses, master. That's very unbecoming of you," said Aaralyn, pouting.
Dante looked at her with a silly face, and she sighed. Dante, however, just stroked her green hair as she continued to pout.
'These girls have been getting more and more active. I should pay more attention to them... All because of that perverted demon.'
"Vex," Dante said, and the Succubus looked directly at him, quickly questioning, "Yes?"
"You will be punished," Dante said, and she blinked twice. She now... found it unfair and yet very satisfying at the same time.
"But I didn't do anything!" she exclaimed, making a scene. Her pout was really cute, and Dante couldn't help but smile slightly as he stood up from the wall he was leaning on, observing Aldria.
Vex, who was flying, suddenly felt danger, and before she could turn...
"SMACK!"
A thud came as she felt her buttocks being completely squeezed by Dante's heavy palm.
"KYAAAANNNN!!!" She screamed, but it sounded more like a moan.
'Masochistic Succubus!' he thought.