"Are you guys seeing that? What did we miss?" Aaralyn asked, she had just returned from her little vacation with her mother, Kaalindra.
"Don't ask me, I don't know what happened between them either," Nagasawa replied, watching the scene that all the women wanted to protest or say something about. However... They had no reaction, it was simply... hard to believe.
"I've definitely seen it all now, officially," Sara said, seeing that it was really true...
But what were they seeing? What was so surprising that these irrational women found it too incredible to believe? Well...
"What's up?" Dante said, while... he was holding hands with Voralith. Well, I don't need to explain why these women's reaction was what it was, it was absurd to see the woman who had distanced herself from Dante so much now, almost sharing the air, holding his hand like a faithful, calm wife; she seemed like a different person!
"He's corrupted a dragon," the three murmured in unison, almost as if it were planned... "Hey, Dante, I know you have a big heart, but don't you think you have too many women in your life already? I mean, look around you," Sara said. She wasn't going against Dante's principles, but... she was worried about her place. "I mean, I don't want to share my time with them," Sara muttered...
"Hm? What does that have to do with me? It's you who seduce me and come after me," Dante said, leaving all of them... in shock.
"Think about it, Valentina, Morgana, and Nagasawa are different cases, but look, you and the others were interested in me first, not the other way around, right? I mean, I took the initiative, of course, but who always comes to me? It's you guys," he said with a mischievous smile, which made the women... thoughtful. "How am I different?" Nagasawa commented.
"You were too precious for me to let you slip away from me," he said honestly and left Nagasawa slightly blushing. "So you're saying you'd let us go?" Sara said, seeming to challenge him.
"I wouldn't let you go, even if I have to take you to hell," Dante said, once again, his possessive eyes swallowing Sara with just one glance. And honestly... She loved it. "Tsk, I'll have to wait for that magical bitch to have her turn first, and then that venomous one, before I get my turn." Sara growled, she wasn't happy at all with this situation. "Don't be like that, on your turn...
I'll give you plenty of love," Dante said, disappearing and reappearing behind her, holding her waist in an embrace, he lightly kissed her neck while he smelled Sara's perfume. "Mmm," she gave a moan of pleasure, but soon...
"So, what do we have for today?" Dante questioned, and Aaralyn, as his faithful shadow, promptly replied. "There are some matters within your jurisdiction that have arisen, I believe you'd like to hear about some interesting things that have been happening in the current world," Aaralyn said with a rather revealing smile, and Dante was genuinely curious.
Aaralyn wasn't one to smile about potentially problematic issues, so it only meant one thing...
"Are the other two having trouble?" He questioned, with a grin stretched across his face like a demon.
"Our little wolf and our little giant are currently in complicated situations, besides... We have news from the Scarlet Valkyries," Aaralyn said. "Oh... so the holidays are really ending, after all, I still have to talk to Lyrianna and Alice," Dante said smiling, the women glanced at each other and sighed deeply.
"Ah~ There he goes again," Sara commented, she hoped Nagasawa was wrong, that all of this was just a big misunderstanding, but Dante's words always got into her head and drove her crazy, why was he always so unpredictable?
"Let's talk about it later, I'll go see Aldria first," Dante said, and disappeared in flames in front of them. They all looked at each other... and let out a collective sigh along with complaints, "This idiot," "He needs to stop using that all the time," "I wanted to spend more time with him..."
They all stopped and turned to Voralith with judgmental looks. "You..." Sara said, however, "Stop looking at me like that! I spent ten years holding back a feeling, now that I've accepted it I want to enjoy it!" She quickly said... "Ah~ Another crazy one," Aaralyn said and vanished into the shadows again... "Looks like it's just us two, want to talk about what happened?
I'm free now," Sara said smiling, unlike the other wives who were very individualistic, Sara was really someone who liked to talk and be friends with them, her upbringing as a Virtue didn't allow her to have many friends, besides her best friend who, by the way, was raised with her, she didn't have many friends to share experiences with.
Despite being suspicious, Voralith nodded, she needed to improve her communication, after all, the lack of it caused her entire Sector to fail, and she didn't want that, never again. "Alright, shall we go to the garden? Little Eldrax is sleeping, it seems like she had a lot of fun with Dante when I disappeared," Voralith said and the two women exchanged smiles and walked together.
Everything was gradually falling into place... The same couldn't be said about Dante and Aldria...
Dante entered the Emperor's Hall, now, Empress, who was having a meeting with several elegant people, well, he didn't care.
"Hello, everyone, can we talk, Empress?" Dante said, looking at Aldria with his typical treacherous smile, and around him, again, a reaction that Dante didn't expect happened... Everyone started trembling in fear just from his presence.
He didn't remember when he was ever really feared, in fact, the closest thing to that was ten years ago when he crushed the entire first year of the Kryoris Academy. "Hm... those were good times," he thought lightly and saw Aldria rising from her throne.
"I'm sure I've ordered you not to meddle in the affairs of my kingdom," she said seriously, facing him without any fear... unlike the fools sitting at the conference table, Aldria wasn't afraid to die at the hands of an idiot like Dante, who would never even touch her for that. Aldria already understood Dante, already knew how he would act and whether he could be dangerous to her and her kingdom.
But Dante didn't respond, he just kept staring at her, the Empress... relented, she knew he wouldn't back down even if she begged him to, and he came at a sudden moment so he had something to say or discuss, with a serious sigh, she looked at her ministers and nobles and nodded. "I'll take care of this, I'll send someone to call you to continue our debate.
You're dismissed," she said and they quickly got up and bowed in respect and hurriedly left the room.
"Beautiful," Dante thought, analyzing Aldria from behind as she had just turned to sit on the throne. He couldn't help but appreciate the Empress's entire body for a few seconds before she noticed his gaze. Well... Dante had a thing for rulers or heiresses, he was a man of strong and imposing women after all... even if some of them were cuter than truly imposing.
"Why are you here anyway? I'm sure I've already denied anything you have to suggest," she said sitting on her throne. "First, stop talking to me like an Empress, I'm not here as a Demon King, so stop it right away.
Or do you want me to treat you as the Empress?" Dante said seriously, he really hated this side of Aldria that kept switching between Empress and Casual, if he didn't talk to her in this way, she would continue wearing that Empress mask.
"Ah~ Fine, sorry, I'm stressed... we have various problems here and it's the fifth meeting this week," Aldria said as she placed her hands over her eyes, taking a small break. "It's all chaos," she said, Dante looked at that and sat on the table in front of her and looked at her. "Do you want to share about it?" Following what Adam had asked, he would take care of Aldria, but only if she wanted that.
"Beasts have been attacking the East, the Mines to the west are yielding few ores because we can't go deeper, in the North we have some issues with some barons who aren't paying taxes and the economy isn't very stable, when you theoretically assumed this kingdom as your home, the commotion caused many problems, especially with spies, we killed most of them, but not all were caught, something or someone is very interested in you lately and sends various assassins and spies," Aldria said all at once, Dante could only look down, because well...
"It's all my fault then," he said, raising his head, "How have I not found any assassins so far? I'm sure I've been on alert all the time," Dante said, Aldria just smiled, "Well, I'm still a master assassin and I have my own squad...
They're watching up to a kilometer from here, probably your senses haven't caught any because they die before reaching here, at least most of them, the last one who approached, you were busy with the kingdom behind the Dragon."
"I see... I guess I must do something then, I'll decrease your burden soon, it's the least I can do," Dante said, his eyes... were burning with flames. "Y-You don't have to, I can handle this," Aldria said, but Dante looked at her, "I have to take care of you as well as Velryna, so your problems are our problems."
[Come here immediately.] Dante said in a summons, quickly, a woman emerged from the shadows.
"Yes, Master," Evangeline said, bowing to Dante. "Stay by Aldria's side and keep her safe, any assassin who approaches the Palace, exterminate and keep their soul for me," he said, and disappeared, leaving only a sense of terror wherever he went, like a Stain of Hatred that corroded everyone who approached.
"He... got really serious, didn't he?" Aldria said, and Evangeline added, "He's like that with all the people he loves and cares about, I wish I, a mere servant, had such love from my master," Evangeline said, exuding quite a bit of jealousy...
"P-People he L-Loves?" She questioned, blushing slightly... "Tsk, lucky woman who doesn't appreciate her luck."