"...there was a time when my cute daughters would swarm around me asking me to carry them in my arms with a cute expression on their faces. But now, forget the hugs, they don't even want to have my clothes washed off together with theirs." said Lotus with a nostalgic and sad look on his face.
"...Not gonna lie dude, I can't that I know how that feels. But that gotta be sad seeing someone you care about give you a cold shoulder like that. But all children go through this phase now a days, so it is not that uncommon." said Sekke as he looked at Lotus.
Lotus just gave a tired sigh and looked down. He nodded his head and then kept quiet for a while.
Currently after the black bulls defeated the diamond kingdom mages, Sekke used his sacred gear to absorb all the remaining magic out of the mages and then restrained their hands with his magic and also connected all of their cuffs with a chain, so that none of them tries to run away.
"Hey....Sekke? Is it really fine to bring them like that?" asked Noelle as she looked at the diamond kingdom mages with a look of uncertainty.
"It's fine, our mission is just to get the treasure chamber before the diamond kingdom does. Not killing them, plus we don't have any personal grudge against them, right? They too were ordered to do this for their kingdom's sake, so I will just let the clover kingdom deal with them. And it's not like they can defeat us and get away from here." said Sekke as he tried to ease the Noelle's worry.
"Sekke-kun, you are pretty unusual you know? Even though you are smart enough to know that we are enemies from a rival kingdom, you still take that decision?" said Lotus as he looked at the blonde haired boy.
Sekke looked at the black haired diamond mage and said, "Well dealing with you all here and now is an option. But just like you told me, you have a family to support. So killing you will leave a bad taste for me, if your daughters get treated badly because of your death."
Sekke gave a kind smile seeing which Lotus gave a sigh and thought, 'He is a good kid.'
"Plus if we hand you all over to the authorities, they will get a chance to interrogate some soldiers from the diamond kingdom, and we will get merit because of that, which will help me get a promotion." said Sekke with as he gave a thumbs up to the diamond kingdom mages making them look at him with a deadpan look on their faces.
"And who knows, that your kingdom try to negotiate to get you all back since, you all are slight high ranked soldiers, well except for the old man who is a top dog. And if the negotiations were to be successful you all get to go back to your families." said Sekke as he patted Lotus's back and said, "So cheer up."
All the people around him except for Asta and Luck looked at him with an unsure expression on their faces. They were not sure whether to think that he was kind person or not, but they just let him be like that.
"...Well whatever, there is no use thinking about it anyway. Let's just hope that everything remains fine for the both of us." said Lotus as he looked at Sekke.
"If not for the clover and diamond kingdoms to be enemies, I would have asked you whether you want to marry one of my daughter or not. You seem to be a fine guy to be around." said Lotus.
"Sorry, not interested old man, I am still too young for that. Your daughters would hate you more if you bring that topic to them, you know?" said Sekke.
"Haha.....I already know that." said Lotus as he gave a dry laugh and looked down with a saddened look on his face.
'...He has already done that.' thought Noelle and Sekke along with the rest of the diamond mages as they looked at Lotus.
"Well, it's not like you are going to win anyway. So it's alright if you don't want to accept my daughter." said Lotus as he looked at Sekke and the other black bulls with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Don't raise the flag, old man." said Sekke with a smirk as well and looked at Secre.
"Are we still far?" asked Sekke to which Secre shook her head.
Hearing that Sekke stopped fooling around and walked forward while telling Luck to look after the diamond mages who we still recovering their mana.
"A word of advice dark lord-kun. Never be arrogant in your abilities, it will surely drag you down in future." said Lotus.
"A solid fact for you old man. It's not arrogance, it's pride and I have the prowess to back that pride up." said Sekke without even looking at him.
Lotus just shook his head after hearing what Sekke said and just walked silently. He had faith in the trump card that he brought with him, and if the kind boy from clover was not willing to follow his advice then there was nothing that he could do.
Sekke on the other hand just walked forwards while being attentive of the surroundings, though he didn't worry much as he had the best tracker/guide sitting on his shoulder leading him towards the treasure room.
"I don't know about daughters but I am very happy to have you Secre." said Sekke as he caressed the bird on his shoulder with a smile on his face.
Secre didn't show a change in her expression but still nuzzled her head against his finger for a moment.
"My daughters are a lot prettier than that bird of yours, you know." said Lotus as he looked at the bird that Sells praised.
Sekke just ignored the old man and said, "Hmph, Secre is the best geezer. You cannot compare her to anyone."
Sekke praised his familiar with a confident tone as he replied to Lotus.
Secret who heard that looked at him and thought, '...You are a great person too.' and then patted his head with her wing trying to calm him down and prevent him from bickering with the diamond mage.
But as they were doing that Luck, Secre and Sekke immediately felt a huge disturbance in mana as a crazed smile appeared on Luck's face.
"It is strong." said Luck.
"Meh so-so. Nothing for the dark lord." said Sekke.
"Huh? What happened?" asked Asta as he looked curiously at Sekke and Luck.
Both their grimoires started floating up and the pages started flipping.
[Lighting Creation Magic: Thunder god's boots]
[Bronze Creation Magic: Bronze Rider]
Immediately lightning enveloped Luck's feet while Sekke's bike appeared in front of him.
"Stay here for a bit, okay." said Sekke as his other Grimoire started floating as well.
[Dark Debuff Magic: Dark touch]
Sekke's hand got enveloped in a dark aura as he moved forward to touch the diamond kingdom mages.
"Wha- What are you doi- Hey I can't see!!" yelled one of the diamond Kingdom goons.
Sekke didn't speak anything and just touched all of them robbing them of their sights and then grabbed Asta and Noelle before he put both of them in the side cart and then rushed towards the source of the mana outburst.