Chapter 30 – Two sides of the same coin
Hai, hai
I'm back... shitty December lol...
Anyway, the next chapter is 18k words longs (already) so it's going to be closer to the starting chapters in length. I'll upload it by tomorrow evening on Patreon and when 32 is finished, it'll come here as well, naturally.
Sorry for the long wait but I haven't been home for over two weeks now so I couldn't write nearly as much as I wanted. I'm going home on the 1st of January so I should be able to get back on track with the usual 10k/week schedule.
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Two sides of the same coin
--- Lien’s pov ---
“How are your apostles doing?” Seth asked as I came back from the door after seeing them out.
“They’re doing well. Rose seemed to take the beating better than the others, as if she understood why she needed it,” I laughed, remembering her cute little struggling face. I didn’t find joy in beating them in such an unfair setup but it was necessary so that they wouldn’t get it over in their heads. I didn’t want to raise a bunch of cocky apostles with enough power to destroy a whole country by themselves. It wouldn’t be good for anyone.
“Well, maybe it’s because she is the youngest. Younger kids’ emotions are usually purer so they care about others more than grownups, hence, they pay more attention to the details. Maybe she noticed how the others behaved before and after you separated them in their training,” he replied, giving me a very plausible explanation.
“You may be right. Now they can see each other struggling, though. They can get used to each other more that way, and feel more like a team. Anyway, what are your plans now that the kids have left?” I asked my husband as I started cleaning up the table. Seeing him sitting in his chair, caressing his belly while doing nothing, I could only smile at the scene.
“Lugh told me not long ago that he finished gathering the souls for the soul-gathering formation, so I plan to set it up and see if Dorje can use his third eye to find out something about Leo. If possible, I also want him to check out Sylvanus and get as much information about him as he can. I don’t like the idea of unknown danger, even more so when we have our kids to take care of,” he replied, glancing at Reiner and Felice who were sitting next to him.
Maybe it had to do with his aura but the kids seemed to like each other very much and didn’t fight even if they were side by side. In fact, they often observed one another with interest and even played around with their hands, like now.
Grabbing Felice’s index finger, Reiner said, “Small.”
While doing this, Felice’s hand was resting on Reiner’s left thigh but she was staring at me.
“Can you hug your little sister? You should protect her in the future,” Seth said playfully as he leaned over and urged Reiner.
“Hug?” he looked at Seth cluelessly.
Appearing next to him so that he can show it to him, Seth hugged me and then said the word again to make him understand what it meant.
Turning towards Felice, he put his chubby short arms around her shoulders and shouted in his excitement, “Hug!”
“Yes, that’s is a hug,” I laughed as I sat down in Seth’s lap and, gently caressed Reiner’s little head. They were so cute the way they sat. After a few seconds, he probably got bored of it and pulled back his arm, only to suddenly receive a hug from Felice who was silent all the while.
Staring at her cluelessly, he also put his hand on the top of her head, copying what I did to him.
“Uuu~ Can I eat them? They are so cute,” I asked Seth, trying my best not to pull one of them into my embrace.
Leaning closer, he whispered into my ear, “I could totally eat you as well. I mean, you took this seat so naturally, are you trying to seduce me?”
“Hush, not here,” I said in a low voice, a little embarrassed to feel my lower half reacting to his gentle and deep voice in my ear. The worst was that he surely felt it so I couldn’t even cover it.
Biting the top of my ear while the kids were focused on each other, he put his arm around my waist and wanted to turn me around to face him but I quickly hopped up from my ‘seat’ and stopped next to the table. Seeing that he was grinning like an idiot, I realised he was just toying with me and here I was taking his intentions seriously.
“You bastard…”
“Hahaha, you’re just as cute as our children. By the way, I still owe you a date, so once I’m done visiting Dorje, we could go out somewhere,” he replied aloud.
“With or without the kids?” I raised my brows.
“Any way you want,” he shrugged his shoulders.
“Hmm, I’ll think about it,” I replied, crying inwardly. Deep inside I knew I wanted to continue but I didn’t want to dump our kids on our parents just so I could have what I wanted, even if our parents would be more than happy to take them away and never bring them back to us.
“My wife is so perverted~” feeling my struggle through his goddamn soul link, he knew what made me think and was cruel enough to point it out.
“If the kids weren’t here, I would slap the back of your head now,” I grumbled, making him laugh out loud.
“Well, I’ll be back while you’re thinking. You could just use your hands, though,” he said playfully, teleporting out of the house before my hand could reach his head.
This bastard…
“Dad goes?” Felice asked, placing her tiny hand on my side. My lust was immediately blown away, seeing the way she looked at me with a disappointed face. Placing my hands under her arms, I raised her up and pulled her into my embrace and moved closer to Reiner.
“Dad has something to do but he’ll come back soon. We will also go out after this together to see the world,” I replied, kissing her face.
While Seth was away, I moved to the bedroom and played with the kids until his return. He came back in less than an hour but it still took longer than I expected. I thought he would be back in about twenty minutes but what mattered was that he was finally back. Whenever he left the house and I was left alone to wait for him, I soon found myself lonely and bored. I was meditating constantly since I didn’t have to stop moving anymore so I couldn’t really do that either.
Or more like, there was no point in it. It was similar to sleeping in a half-sober state which was fine to do for some time but it was quite boring most of the time. When I was weaker and needed to focus more to meditate, it was much more ‘fun’ than these days. Getting more powerful also had its own drawbacks which I came to realise only as I got stronger.
Sometimes I just really wanted to use my power to do something with it so I often built random terrains in Leviathan when I had the time, including imaginary and scientifically unexplainable places as well. The good thing was that my love for magic and its research didn’t fade over the years and I had to be powerful to find the answers for the kind of questions Seth and I had. Gaining power was still important but I felt that my family was pretty much safe here so I needed it more for research purposes than to protect someone.
I knew that Sylvanus was a tiny bit stronger than my husband but if I fought together with Seth, he wouldn’t stand a chance, assuming that Sylvanus didn’t have partners. I was sure Seth would ask the same questions if he could find out something about Leo and Sylvanus, and since he was back, I went out of the bedroom to question him. Felice and Reiner were so busy playing with the building blocks that I was quite sure they wouldn’t move even if I left them alone for an hour.
They were inside Leviathan anyway, so no matter what they did or where they were, Seth would know about them. On the other hand, my passive sense also covered about sixty kilometers so even I could tell if they were about to do something dangerous.
“Welcome back, did you find out anything?” I asked as I leaned out to the corridor.
“Yo, and yes, I managed to learn a thing or two,” he replied with a smile. Glancing at the kids who were still focused on playing blocks, I stepped out of the room and went to the living room after my husband.
“I’m all ears,” I said as I sat down on the couch and threw my legs over his thighs, laying down across him.
Placing his hands on my thighs, he unconsciously started caressing it as he started talking, “Thanks to the Soul-Gathering formation, Dorje’s soul force became much stronger temporarily and he managed to find out a few things for us. First of all, Sylvanus is staying in a space like Leviathan which is currently situated above the deepest spot of the Pacific Ocean. Dorje also said that Sylvanus had a whole civilization living inside his space in peace. After all that, I’m pretty sure we can trust him.”
“As for Leo and the others, it turns out that he is the incarnation of Loki, the god of trickery, and he is the current vice-leader of the strongest organization that’s causing trouble around the world, Arcane Spirits. This cursed band also includes Kali’s incarnation who is called Kylie, Adro, and Ishtar who are using the name of their incarnations.”
“Kali is the god of destruction in Hindu mythology so Kylie is probably doing it for power and if she inherited her powers, she probably liked murdering anyway. Adro is an African god, Adroa’s evil half in mythology with the ability to turn into a snake, cause sickness and possess women.”
“And here comes the last one, the bomb… Ishtar, who is a goddess of fertility, war, and destruction. I believe you understand what that ‘fertility’ means in her mythology,” he sighed loudly.
“I suppose she can also become exponentially stronger by having sex, like you,” I nodded.
“Yes. I don’t know what conditions she has to fulfill to make it come true but in any case, she definitely has the ability to make herself and her apostles stronger and I have a feeling she’s making good use of it. She is the leader of the Arcane Spirits so she’s definitely strong.”
“Why, aren’t you the same?” I chuckled, hearing the way he said it. He made himself sound as if he was a saint.
“Hahaha, yeah, I guess I am. But I’m not doing you for power,” he smirked as he grabbed my chin and pulled down my lower lip with his thumb. Retracting his hand, he continued, “Anyway, that’s the group I have to get rid of one way or the other because they’re definitely up to no good in a team like that.”
“Leo has already tricked me once which made me chase after an enemy that didn’t exist for two whole years. Sometimes I try to soothe myself with ideas that I was tricked because he probably has some commandment that affected me but let’s be honest, I was just stupid and never tried to listen to Sylvanus. My only saving grace is that I’ve never got to hear him talk again after his first threatening statement,” he shook his head, clearly bothered by it.
“If this makes you happier, I didn’t think of that either, so I’m equally stupid,” I smiled at him.
“Being dumb makes you happy, huh? That’s interesting,” he laughed, flicking my forehead.
Rubbing the spot where his finger hit, I said, “I don’t think you are dumb and you had no way to find out the truth. Considering how little you knew about the world back then and then not having the ability to talk to your supposed enemy, I think that it’s understandable that you didn’t realise the truth. At least, I fed myself this kind of reasoning to feel better,” I shrugged my shoulders helplessly.
“Haha, you’re right. There is no use thinking about it now. It is what it is, I just have to be careful in the future so it wouldn’t happen again,” he said with some fake enthusiasm, caressing my leg. Well, it sucked when you realised that you were doing something wrong for years… but what could we do about it now? We just had to do our best to fix it, I believed.
Seeing that he was starting to feel down the more he thought about it, I hopped up from the sofa and held out my hand, “Come, you’re no good if you keep thinking. Let’s go somewhere and have some fun to cheer you up!”
“But you are also feeling down, I can sense it through Link,” he muttered, taking my hand.
“Yes, that’s why you must cheer me up and I’ll do the same to you,” I laughed, pulling him to his feet. Since the small table was behind my legs, I couldn’t step back too much but Seth had such a large stature that there wasn’t enough space left between the sofa and me for him.
Our bodies pressed against each other, he raised a brow and nodded his head, “Well, that’s quite nice. It definitely made me feel better.”
Naturally, he was talking about my breasts which were pressed against his chest.
“It wasn’t intentional… Let’s go and take the kids,” I cleared my throat as I quickly stepped to the side before he could put his hand on my ass. It was dangerous for me to get so close to him since I could smell his fragrance and his warmth which always made me weak.
“How slippery,” he mused, seeing that he couldn’t catch me.
“You can get it later~” I said as I left the room, leaving him alone for a moment.
“Felice, Reiner, come, it’s time to go out and take a walk in Leviathan.”
Raising their heads from the building blocks, they both stared at me with drooping eyes. Rubbing them, Felic asked, “Go? Where?”
“Are you sleepy?” I asked, seeing that maybe they wouldn’t come with us this time, after all.
“Yes,” she nodded, raising her arms, signaling for me to pick her up. Having a change of plans, I took them to their room on the second floor that we built not long ago and put them on their large bed.
Although there were two rooms, both with their own bathrooms and stuff, we wanted them to sleep in the same room and on the same bed for the time being so that they would get used to each other as much as possible. Brotherly and sisterly love was a very strong bond if it was true familial love and we hoped that we could raise our children to love each other. I also wanted a loving brother or sister when I was a child but I’ve never had one.
Maybe that was the reason I was clinging to Seth so much back then but if that was really the case, I could only feel happy I didn’t have a sibling. It led me to have an amazing husband and family, so it was all worth it. Naturally, Seth came with me in the meantime so we waited until the kids fell asleep and left the room only afterward.
“It’s already six in the evening. We should get going if we want to go on a date…” Seth urged me as he checked on the time. Training the girls then all the other things took a lot of time so the day was getting closer to its end.
“Hmm~ why the hurry? Let me get changed first. Since the kids won’t come with us, why don’t we go out of Leviathan? We could visit some fancy place,” I said, closing the door to the kids’ room.
“Oh? I like that idea. Fine, I’ll wait for you in the living room,” his interest piqued, he left in a hurry. Seeing the way he walked, slightly swaying his hips, I could vividly imagine a wagging tail on his behind so I ended up laughing at him. Turning around for a moment with a confused face, not understanding what I was laughing at, he shrugged his shoulders and went down the stairs.
Teleporting to the bedroom, I opened my wardrobe and looked at my clothes. Seth went out with me to get new clothes almost every week but it often ended with sex in the changing room so I had little time to actually look around. Thanks to that, Seth usually picked up a few clothes randomly and left the local store in a hurry, so I had many clothes but I didn’t even know what they looked like. Usually, I went shopping by myself later when he was busy…
Looking down at my hotpants and simple white shirt, I couldn’t help but think that I should have just shut my mouth and go with him the way I was.
Well, it’s no use crying over spilled milk. I said I would dress up for him so I should do just that, I cried inwardly. He usually dolled me up during sex with his trait so I didn’t have to change clothes most of the time and he didn’t care what I wore at home. Still, I knew his preferences and fetishes better than anyone so I made up my mind to go for seduction today.
After staring at my wardrobe for what seemed a few minutes, I took out a shiny silver-coloured, shoulderless cocktail dress that had its front cut up at its left half.
This reaches only till my knees and with that cut up part… my god, about half of my left thigh will be visible. Are these being made by guys or very daring women? I cursed myself, not even sure how it got into my wardrobe. I had a feeling Seth picked it up during our last shopping session without knowing what he grabbed.
Getting a matching coloured pair of high heels to go with it, I quickly dressed up and then put on some pink lipstick. I believed red would be too much with this kind of getup since I found it daring enough already. I had no problem dressing down in front of Seth but I never wore too revealing clothes outside.
Strange enough, as I changed my clothes and looked at myself in the mirror, I sort of felt embarrassed. I believed I looked charming but I found my dress a bit too revealing for my taste.
Uuu~ Why am I getting all nervous now? I'm going with my goddamn husband. He's seen me naked thousands of times already, I screamed in my mind, tapping my face a few times.
Taking a deep breath, I used magic to tie up my hair in a fancy way, revealing more of my neck and nape that Seth loved licking, kissing, and sucking on so much. I was a little worried that he would push me down once he saw me but I believed he would be able to resist the temptation.
Checking myself in the mirror one last time, I went to the living room with careful steps, not sure what Seth was going to do once he saw me.
"Are you done?" he asked as he came to the corridor, hearing my steps. His eyes and pupils opening wide, he stared at me in silence for what felt like minutes to me, even though only a few seconds passed before I couldn’t bear his strong gaze anymore and had to turn away.
"Uh- can we just get to the point?"
"No…” I rolled my eyes. “Also, it was you who brought up that you owe me a date," I replied right away, reminding him what he said. While I was sure it would end with what both of us wanted, I believed we shouldn’t go for it right away. It wouldn’t be a date if we didn’t even leave the house…
"Fine, you dressed up for me, I shouldn't start with tearing your clothes off," he nodded. "I'm not going to say the obvious so I'll just say that I've pitched a tent upon seeing you."
"Haha, thanks," I smiled at him from the bottom of my heart. Honestly speaking, it sort of made me happy that I didn't have to listen to some cheesy 'you are beautiful' kind of line. Well, this kind of thing has happened before and he reacted that way which I didn’t like that much so he probably learned his lesson. Although his way of praising me was rather perverted, I found it quite funny and likable.
"Let's get going then," I added, going closer to him to hug his arm. As if I wasn't even there, he reached into his pants and fixed the position of his dick and then started walking.
Noticing that I rolled my eyes upon the sight, he said, "What? This isn't some first date shit."
"I can't believe you. You've proved to me many times before that you can be romantic, why can't you do that now? I'm in the mood for it," I remarked.
"I'll give you lots of romance then, don't worry!"
"Why did your 'romance' sound as if it was something else?" I rolled my eyes again.
"Guess why," he laughed. Shaking my head, I teleported ourselves to an expensive restaurant in San Diego. Their food was really good and I kind of wanted to eat something delicious so I was looking forward to it.
“Do you want me to change to a suit?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my waist. He wore a tight black, short-sleeved shirt that outlined his muscles perfectly and a black short. It was true that there was a bit of disparity between us but I found him way sexier in his black shirt than a suit and he probably felt more comfortable in his clothes anyway.
Remembering that there was one thing that could make him look more refined, I said, “Just get a belt in your short.”
It wasn’t like he needed it but I’ve always dreamed of seeing him taking out his belt. It was just that he didn’t need it so he had never worn one before. Quickly adding the missing piece with magic, we made our way towards the fancy restaurant named La Jolla. It was a place for elites since you either had to be well-known or powerful to enter and every food on the menu was made of S ranked magical beasts.
Their meat was very hard to prepare since they were usually much thicker than normal animal’s but with the help of some magic, you could make them as soft and light as chicken meat while still retaining their wonderful taste. The reason I knew all of this was because I made a deal with the king of San Diego in this restaurant. They also accepted Leviathan Coins.
There were many luxurious cars parked in front of the restaurant which was right next to the ocean. Despite being in October, the weather was quite pleasant even for normal people, though there was a small wind blowing from the direction of the ocean. Since it was quite dark already, the lights were lit up in the whole city and even the buoys near the coast were shining in a gentle yellow light.
“Your entry cards, please,” the guard standing in front of the door said, holding out his hand towards Seth.
Hey, it’s me who is bringing in my husband, not the other way around! I pouted in my mind. It sucked that most of the time, people either thought that I was just a ‘gem’ on a powerful man’s hand and that I was with Seth because I was after his power. It kind of hurt when your emotions were considered a joke in other’s eyes and they called it something else. Luckily, nobody looked at me in Leviathan the way this guard did.
Although he was wearing sunglasses to hide his eyes, I could see through it with magic and I knew that he was ogling me and staring at me with contempt at the same time. His eyes were screaming ‘another money-hungry bitch’.
Although I kind of wanted to show him that it was me who had the entry card, I didn’t want to put Seth in a bad position and he was more than deserving of any kind of invitation anyway, so I slipped the card to him behind our backs with telekinesis.
“I’m not going to take it, you give it to him,” he replied, pushing it back in the same manner. I was sure he didn’t hear my thoughts but he knew me well enough to tell what I wanted, even if I made no visible reaction. Other than my parents, only he was so attentive to me.
“Fine but don’t regret it later,” I replied as I took out the card and put it in the guard’s hand. Bowing slightly as a form of apology, he looked at the card and then stepped to the side, “Please, enter. The prince is having a birthday party so we apologize if the place will be a bit noisier than usual.”
“Thank you,” I replied with a smile, entering in a hurry. I found it quite disturbing that he was staring at my cleavage and my thigh through the cut-up part the whole time, proving that my dress showed a bit more skin than I liked. As if that wasn’t enough, his pulse also raised while we were talking and blood rushed towards his lower half.
“Where did you get the entry card? I could have made one with magic but yours was authentic,” Seth asked once we got further away from the guard.
“This was one of the first places in America where I talked with the local ruler to introduce Leviathan Coins. San Diego is now a small kingdom in itself and they even have princes and princesses. Naturally, they are also power-oriented so the more powerful you are, the higher your status is.”
“I suppose you know the king personally,” he remarked.
“Of course, though I haven’t met his son before, only his daughter, Princess Julie,” I explained, kind of amused by all these statuses.
Two years ago, I would have found the kind of magic these people could use amazing… but now, they were more like ants. I didn’t mean it in a bad way, it was just a good way of comparison for the power difference.
“Can we sit anywhere we want or did you reserve a table?” he asked, seeing that I was moving towards the terrace.
“If you are allowed to enter, you can sit anywhere on the first two levels but you will have to reserve a table on the higher levels. While the king reserved a table for me on the top level for future use, saying that I could go there to eat anytime, I can feel that the prince is on the top level of the building so I think that we’re better off here. Nobody is going to bother us this way,” I replied, looking for an empty table.
Spotting one in the corner, right next to the fence of the terrace, I tugged on Seth’s arm and led him there. That was the only table that had a curved corner chair behind it instead of two or four chairs surrounding it.
“Oh, great find, we can sit next to each other this way,” he said with a smile. Taking our place right next to each other, I picked up the menu and checked it out with him.
“Damn, you smell so nice. Do you think I could order you from the waiter?” he asked as I turned to the second page, already finding multiple things that I wanted to try.
“I’m sorry but I’m the dessert,” I mused as I continued reading. Pressing his shoulder against mine, he leaned closer to read with me. Once I finally had a list in my mind, I put the menu on the table to call for a waiter. Surprisingly, a woman walked up to our table the moment I stopped reading as if she was waiting for that.
The woman was in her early twenties and she wore a rather revealing dress, comparable to mine in every aspect. The moment she opened her lips to talk, I realised even the waiters and waitresses were dressed up nice here. I honestly thought that she was a guest here…
“What are your orders, Sir, Miss?”
After I was done telling her, she also took Seth’s orders but it was hard to not see her ogling my husband as she wrote down everything. Scanning her body and soul a bit more thoroughly, I found out that she was in a somewhat horny state and even her pulse was higher. Although I didn’t like it and I wasn’t as used to it as Seth, I didn’t take it to heart and just ignored it. Seth didn’t punch the guard at the door in the face either so I believed I should be able to control myself just as well.
Look, look at him more because he is all mine! Isn’t he sexy? I taunted the girl in my mind, soon noticing that I was staring at her really hard.
“Alright, I’ll go and pass on your orders right away. Here is a selection of our drinks which you can choose from while waiting for your food,” she gave a booklet to Seth, slipping a small piece of paper underneath. Turning around, the girl left in a hurry, swaying her hips as she walked.
Pulling out the paper from under the booklet, Seth looked at it with his brows raised, seeing that it had a big heart drawn on it and a phone number in the middle. “Call me later,” he read the text in the bottom right corner aloud.
“Well, I don’t have a phone so I can’t call her. What a shame,” he sighed, turning the paper into ashes right away.
“She is a gold digger,” he added, coming to the same conclusion as me after checking her soul with the soul language.
“But you are poor, you don’t have a single dollar,” I chortled, knowing that I was in the same shoes. We either used a Leviathan coin to pay or we had to copy dollars with magic.
“Ah, yes. The poor me. I’m sorry that things like these are free in Leviathan so I can’t hoard money. Hell, it’s me and the craftsman who have to freely provide the residents with things in exchange for their contribution points!” he shook his head, playing along with me.
Laughing at the way he spread his arms and explained with enthusiasm, I couldn't help but forget all about that girl. She was young, beautiful, and assertive as well, but I knew she was no threat in any way so I realised it was stupid to get annoyed by her.
We continued chatting about all kinds of things and ordered a few drinks to go with it while the girl was going back and forth to serve the other guests, often sneaking glances at Seth. It took about twenty minutes for the food to be prepared and the same girl as before brought it to our table right away.
"This is the Black-feathered Eagle's meat that was made from its most delicious parts, its limbs. This is the broth you requested prepared from the meat of Sky Bear, and finally, the fish sticks, our local specialty. Here is some rice and fries to go with the meat," she explained what was what as she put it on our table from her food car.
"Thank you," I smiled at her while my husband was just starting forward with a blank face, probably thinking about something.
Suddenly looking at the waitress girl, he said, "Miss, I forgot to tell you something. I thank you for the 'opportunity' but I'm married and have kids already so I must politely refuse."
"I see, that's too bad," she said as she hugged her round plate and looked at him, clearly disappointed by her failure. Realising that she was still at work, she quickly got herself together and after a small bow, she left in a hurry.
"That was kind of you," I remarked, pulling one plate of broth in front of me.
"Well, I don't think there was a need to be a dick and shame her-"
"I wasn't being sarcastic," I interrupted him, thinking that he misunderstood me.
"I know, I just said what I was thinking about," he said, pulling the meat in front of him.
"Wait, why do you start with the heaviest stuff? Your broth is right there," I pointed at the other plate.
Making a thoughtful face, he put the meat back in its place and said, "Fine… I was just looking forward to it too much, I guess."
Being true to his title as the ‘Mage Emperor’, as some called him in Leviathan, he used telekinesis to use the fork and knife while eating. Honestly speaking, I found it a bit weird looking but at the same time, he also looked rather elegant.
“Show off,” I remarked, doing the same.
“Then why are you copying me?” he asked, poking my knife with his magic.
“Should I not?” I raised my brows.
“You can do whatever you want…” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.
While eating, we also ordered some desserts and a refill of our drinks. It was some old wine from over two hundred years ago… so it was really potent. If my body hadn't been immune to alcohol, I would have probably sat on Seth right there. It was good that I could stay sober.
When we finished, the waitress took the plates and came back a moment later with the slices of chocolate cake we ordered.
"Ah, that was great. Now let's get to the point," my sweet-toothed husband said happily as he grabbed his cake. My focus was broken only when I heard a lot of noise coming from the direction of the stairs and the elevator.
"It seems the prince has finished his celebration," Seth remarked, noticing that I was listening to the noises.
"Mhm," I nodded, a little worried that a bunch of drunkards would ruin this night. I was having a good time but I could sense that from the thirty people that came down, almost everyone was drunk. They continued making noise for a while when the waitress girl who served us suddenly cried out with a surprised voice.
"Hahaha, look at that, what a nice way to dress!" laughter came from inside, followed by an angered man’s voice, "Your highness, you have drunk too much tonight! Please, stop bothering the other guests and the waitresses!”
"Alright, alright, uncle. I'll go and breathe some fresh air since it’s you who asked me," the Prince's drunken voice could be heard and a moment later he appeared in the doorway, leading to the terrace where we were.
"He better not annoy me," Seth remarked silently.
"I bet…" I could only curse as my eyes met with the Prince's. He had short black hair and golden eyes, reflecting some light-magic related mutation. Today was his twentieth birthday so he was unlikely to grow any taller, stopping at a height of 176 centimeters.
He continued staring at me for a few seconds as he stood in the door, trying his best to keep himself straight. Maybe noticing that I was being stared at by a horny boy, Seth suddenly grabbed my chin and gave me a kiss on the lips. Not minding that the prince was staring at us, he openly pushed his tongue into my mouth and rolled over some of the cake that he was chewing on before. His tongue was so sweet, I couldn’t help but start sucking on it greedily.
I knew it was bad but I honestly enjoyed the fact that he showed the prince that I was his woman so aggressively. Wrapping my hand around the backs of his head, I even flashed my wedding ring to the prince to make sure that he wouldn’t come here to bother us. Finally pulling back, a small line of saliva still connecting our mouth, Seth licked his lips and then smiled at me playfully.
“You show off,” I said in a low voice.
Thrusting his fork into his cake, he pointed it towards me as he said, “I don’t like showing off but I prefer making sure that I won’t be bothered by others.”
Stealing the cake from his fork with a quick bite, I replied, “Good for me.”
“Ah! You little thief…”
“What’s up Julius? Why are you staring forward with such a dumb face?” one of the prince’s friends walked up to him from behind and threw his arm around his neck. Seeing that he was ignored, he followed Julius’ line of sight and looked at me.
Making a surprised face, he also looked at me for a few seconds before nodding his head as he said, “Oh, I see. Did you fall in love at first sight?”
“No, but I’ve never wanted to have someone as much as that woman,” he replied. It wasn’t that they were talking loudly and the terrace was huge so they were also quite far away. It was just that my ears were much sharper than normal humans’.
“So why don’t you go and get her?” his friend asked. What a nice ‘friend’ he was…
“They were kissing a moment ago and she had a ring on her finger…” he replied reasonably. He seemed to be much less drunk than a few seconds ago which just showed that he was a strong magician as well. Of course, strong only when compared to the norm. He was just a B ranked magician, something my apostles achieved in just two months.
“So what? I bet she would leave that dude for the prince of this kingdom. Even that sexy waitress girl was ready to go with you a moment ago. I’m sure she would have called out others for harassment if they slapped her ass the way you did,” that fucking bastard was trying hard to make the prince come to us.
“I was drunk, I shouldn’t have done that in the first place,” Julius said, shaking his head.
Grabbing Julius’ arm, the guy pulled him towards us, “Come, let me hook you up with that bitch.”
Glancing at Seth, I could see him closing his eyes and clenching the fork in his hands. “Let’s go before I ruin the night by killing someone,” he said as he stood up, his wrath spilling through his tone. Just talking about me was one thing but calling me ‘bitch’ was a good enough reason for my overprotective husband to kill someone.
“I may kill him sooner than you do, though,” I replied, following his example. Making our way towards the doorway, we stopped in front of the duo, waiting for them to step aside.
“Hello beauty, my friend here, Julius prince is really into you-” the guy said as he pointed at Julius but he stopped talking the moment, Seth grabbed Julius’ shoulders and literally put him to the side, ignoring both of them.
I walked past them in a hurry and Seth followed right behind me while Julius’ stupid friend shouted after us, “Hey! How dare you do that to the prince? Stop right there!” Rushing after us, he was about to grab my wrist and pull me back but his body suddenly froze.
Turning to look at him, Seth said, “Sometimes we make mistakes in our lives that cost us more than we expect. Today, your mistake may be your last if you continue annoying me, so you better leave us alone and shut up.”
With his magic power completely released, his crushing aura pressed down on the boy, making him realise that he was doing his best to offend someone he really shouldn’t have.
“Sir… I didn’t know! I’m sorry for bothering you!” he quickly fixed his attitude.
“Wouldn’t he just bother others in the future if we left him alive, though?” I asked, unsure if it was actually right to let this kind of guy live. These few seconds were enough for me to tell that he was a typical useless, troublemaker who ruined people’s lives whose status and power were beneath his. After scanning his soul with the Soul Language, the results made me believe even more strongly that he shouldn’t be left alive.
“He would, I’m just not sure if I should be the judge today and stop him for better or worse,” Seth replied, seriously considering my words.
"No, please! I swear I'm not going to bother anyone from now on!" hearing my words, he started begging for his life, often sneaking glances at Julius, seemingly asking for help. He wasn't being sincere, just like I expected.
Shaking his head, Seth created a Leviathan coin behind his back and walked up to the receptionist. As he put his hand on the desk, the guy flinched and jumped in his surprise. "That's our payment for the food," he said, pushing the coin towards him and waiting for him to finish inspecting it.
"Sir, this feels like the real deal but you were showing your back to me and I've seen you creating it out of nothing," the guy replied, having more guts than all the others present combined. Everyone could feel the pressure and they were all dead silent, and yet this guy was daring enough to point out such silly things.
"The other coins are made in the same way, and you can test the magic power inside… Of course, it would feel like the others since I’m the one making them," Seth replied. Doing as told, the guy's eyes opened wide.
"You have some guts. Are you interested in taking the test to join Leviathan?" my husband asked.
"Of course!" the receptionist cried out happily. Since Leviathan became more famous and people got to know it as a place for the strong, many people wanted to join and that was the main reason I closed the portals a month ago. I was planning to open it up again after two or three months when the last batch of newcomers got used to the place and the way things worked.
“I see, I will organize a test for you at the weekend, I suppose you aren’t going to work then,” Seth replied, even being considerate enough to not disturb the guy’s life if he failed. He could just come to work next week if he did but since my husband made the offer, he was unlikely to fail.
“Yes, I’ll be free,” the guy nodded with enthusiasm.
Looking at Julius and glancing at his ‘friend’, I said, “Your father is a reasonable and clever person. Despite his power, he isn’t cocky and self-complacent like most of the people that surround you. These kinds of people will one day cause your downfall so you should choose more wisely who you surround yourself with. I hope that you will consider my advice in the future, and you did well by not bothering us.”
“I understand,” he replied respectfully. As we left the building, I could hear Julius shouting at the guy for ‘almost getting him killed with his stupidity’ and such lines.
After having some fun in a hotel nearby, we returned to our home in the middle of the night and slept until morning. Funny enough, Seth left for a few minutes to get the receptionist guy started on the test but when he returned, he told me that Julius was with him and he also went through the portal. His friends were stupid but Julius seemed like a reasonable person. I was looking forward to seeing if he could get through the tests and become a member of Leviathan.
--- Ishtar’s POV ---
“Come in,” I said as I laid on my king-sized bed, sensing that Leo was standing in front of my door. Pulling it to the side, he entered my room and sat in the armchair next to my bed.
“What news do you have for me?” I rolled around to my other side and looked at him.
“Seth and Sylvanus have met today for the first time and they talked to each other…” he replied, lowering his head.
“They did what?!” I shouted. “No, no, no. That’s not good. That’s really bad. Have they come to an agreement or something?”
“Sylvanus will stop spreading his soul force-”
“It’s surprising but that’s also okay!” I interrupted him. Noticing that he didn’t look as ignorant of it as I did, I asked, “What else?”
“Instead, Seth will continue releasing his own soul force to make humans stay in peace,” he replied, making me want to blow up something.
I’ve lived a very hard life when I was younger because my parents were killed by some trash rich family and I was ‘spared’. I had to beg for food on the streets for many years and fight in the wild against monsters once I had enough power to fight them. If that wasn’t enough, the children of rich families often abused me when I entered the city to get some money for the beasts I’ve slain. They had many resources and teachers to guide them so I was nothing when compared to them.
I always hoped that they would just get rid of each other and leave me alone and that one day I would be saved by a kind person. When I reached ten years old, I inherited Ishtar’s legacy and since I didn’t have a name of my own, I took her name upon myself. In just three years, her powers were enough for me to become stronger than all those crappy rich families.
I was ready to take revenge and crush all of them but I ran into Leo on the streets and he taught me other ways. I knew he was different from the moment I first spotted him. He was not only calculative and always calm, he was much stronger than the citizens that lived in that cursed city. After some careful planning with his guidance, we’ve set up the two largest families against each other by blaming one thing after the other on one another and war broke out between them.
I found so much joy in seeing the two families and all the children who beat me when I was younger fighting against each other and killing their old ‘friends’. I came to understand that friendship and love between humans were incredibly shallow. It was enough to lit a small flame in the beginning and later we didn’t even have to do anything. The two families always found a way and a reason to hate and bother each other and ended up in war by themselves.
The kids that turned into teenagers and were calling each other friends a few years ago were excited to kill each other. It was hilarious, especially when we appeared in the last moment when both families used up almost all of their resources and told them the truth. Naturally, we also finished what they started and got rid of them. I’ve gained a huge boost in power once that happened which made me really happy considering that I had to stay strong so that something like my past wouldn’t repeat itself.
I was all prepared to look for another similar city and family which I found in Leo’s birthplace, a city named Balan. Leo was living his life as a normal student in a school while secretly causing trouble around the world to gain more power. I gained power from causing wars while for him, anything worked as long as he managed to trick someone.
He later told me that he was the incarnation of Loki and that we could screw up Balan as the next step. I was really happy about it, there was only one problem that we found out about only later on. The White family was controlled by some bitch called Mary who was also a god incarnation, so we couldn’t get them to fight the other large families. Soon after, Leo contacted that woman and tricked her into doing stupid things, gaining even more power.
We have also found out that one of Leo’s classmates was a god incarnation but we weren’t sure of his origins so I retreated to Leo’s house to stay safe while he spied on Seth and found out that he was the incarnation of Khem. Since neither of us knew what that meant, I left Balan to find some old books or something about the origins of that god.
In the meantime, Leo stirred the local noble kids’ into action by using his commandment and caused trouble to the girl that Seth liked, Lien. Despite all his efforts, Seth didn’t take any serious action against the other families so neither of us got more powerful. During my research, I’ve found out who was Khem and I also found out that there was a being who called himself Sylvanus. I talked to one of its clones one day and he was planning to cover the whole planet in his soul force and then get rid of humans at once, except for a select few.
He also told me that my commandment wouldn’t affect people as much as I wanted because of his soul force which made me a bit sad but if all these trash people died, I had no complaints. We had been living a leisure life since then, thinking that we just had to wait for the destruction to happen. Leo also became much stronger after tricking Seth into doing something pointless and it didn’t really affect anything since there were millions of mana-releasing nodes around the world.
In the middle of the boredom of waiting, as I grew older, my body started having its own desires but I didn’t think I could ever like a guy so I usually just abducted a few handsome guys and used them as I pleased. Those pig creatures were more than willing to serve me in bed after the first time anyway. I just had to use my magic on them and they could no longer say no to their cocks. Well, in some cases, I didn’t even have to use my magic… men were pigs. You just had to feed them and they were willing to do anything for you.
Leo was nice to me but I’ve never considered him in that sort of relationship. I also feared that he would also just ‘trick’ me one day and end our relationship to gain more power. It was better to stay at a safe distance from each other.
The first problem came when Seth realised what Sylvanus’ soul force was capable of and started setting up soul-blocking formations. I would have never found out that soul force had such usages if Sylvanus hadn’t told me when we first met. Pissed up by those stupid formations, I destroyed a city and left a warning for Seth, hoping that he would stop making new ones.
I didn’t think that he would actually end up meeting Sylvanus and that they would come to an agreement! I also had no idea that Sylvanus would change his mind in just two years, so naturally, I was incredibly angry. We could have done so much in the last two years if we had known about it.
“Don’t worry, it’s one for one. I’ve tricked him two years ago and Sylvanus also tricked us, even if unintentionally. The good thing is that they don’t know anything about us and this is the best time to take action,” Leo soothed me, seemingly having a plan.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked with a frown. Standing up, he leaned over to me and took my wavy black hair between his fingers, slowly combing them through my hair. Glancing at my round, taut breasts, he closed his eyes and pulled back his hand.
“You gods of sex are always so alluring, it’s kind of annoying that you’re constantly releasing your pheromone aura, you know?” he asked, taking a step back.
“What? Do you also want to be a part of my collection?” I mused, seeing that he had some trouble in his pants. Shaking his hand and pinching his nose, he said, “I’m not going to tell you anything if you don’t pull back your aura.”
“Fine…” I replied, doing as told.
“Haah- finally,” he sighed in relief. “My plan is quite simple. Sylvanus will stop spreading his soul force as Seth will start building up his own mana nodes. That will take a lot of time but instead of trying to change the world, he will definitely focus on what’s actually possible to achieve in a short amount of time. He’s probably going to focus on the largest settlements first and then the medium-sized, and finally, the small-sized ones.”
“But what happens if we destroy his mana nodes? As Sylvanus’ mana will start disappearing and Seth can’t establish his own, people’s minds will clear up and they’ll probably start a war by themselves to expand their own territories. If we also take advantage of Kylie’s simplicity and desire to destroy, we can make the whole world burn in no time! I’ll see what can Seth do about humans once they will start slaughtering themselves!” he laughed happily.
Imagining the scene, I couldn’t help but laugh as well. Leviathan was a power we couldn’t trifle with because neither of us was comparable to them in power. But what we wanted was quite easy to achieve while what they wanted was much harder and took years.
Well, I was stronger than Leo at the moment since I gained power every time I completely subdued someone in bed which was an easy feat for me with my powers. It just sucked that I had to find a different partner every time if I wanted to gain more power.
But if a war were to break out, I could gain power both from the war and sex and possibly become the most powerful goddess in the world!
I was really looking forward to it because once it happened, I was planning to get rid of that bitch Lien and test my skills on Seth. As another god of sex, I was sure we could have way more fun together. I had seen pictures of his wife and we had very similar body types so he would surely like my looks as well.
Should I disguise myself and try to tempt him later? No… that would be too dangerous, he would probably kill me now. I must remain in the shadows and use Leo, Kylie, and Adro to do my bidding. It would be even better if I didn’t have to kill Lien myself and I could just get into their lives by an ‘accident’ or something.
Hell, yeah. I could totally take her husband from her once I became his girl. It would be hilarious to see her being kicked out of the ‘family’ because Seth wanted to get in bed only with me.
Ah~ feeble human relationships. Dear Lien, I’ll show you in the future that ‘family’ and ‘husband’ are just empty words to describe your shallow relationship with another person. Just like friends.
“You seem to like my plan,” Leo remarked, seeing that I was grinning.
“Yeah. I have one concern, though. Are you sure that they won’t be able to find us?” I asked.
“Don’t worry, my commandment includes a very powerful masking ability. Although they have Dorje on their sides, not even third, fourth, or any other eye can see through my mask, and since all three of you are my apostles, you have received the same masking ability. Kylie, Adro, and you as well are safe.
“Alright then, I guess it’s time for us to move as well!” I said with enthusiasm. Naturally, I didn’t mean it. I was planning to make them do most of the things so that I could stay hidden. Smiling at the idea, I looked at the clueless Leo who raised me into who I was.
I’ll wait for now and see how things go in the future!