—Several Hours Later—
"We are almost there!!", Lily proclaimed with excitement following the prompts on the screen, "Just a bit more!"
"Keep it ladies!", Runeas cheered the group on as she shook and swayed to the beat, "The number one spot will be ours, just you wait!"
"Push it to the max!!", Serafall shouted shaking her butt like a pop star, "We are the best dancers in the universe!!"
"A few hundred more points!!", Eri called out clapping her hands with a beaming smile, "Cha cha cha!!"
Watching the four of them dance in unison, a little entourage of children followed along behind them full of excitement. Leading the group was Lily's sister who was loudly boasting that her sister was going to win first place. Filming the whole scene on my phone, I could not stop thinking about how adorable my children were. As I watched them draw closer to the top of the leaderboard on the dancing game, Lilith walked over and took a seat next to me.
"Are you recording their achievement?", she inquired noticing that I was recording them.
"Of course I am, my adorable daughters are having a blast with their friends.", I replied matter-of-factly, "Do Devils not record special occasions involving their children?"
Shaking her head, Lilith stated that only a handful of families did so.
"Parties like this are a rarity among Devil kind actually. The only celebratory parties we have are for the birth of a child, coming of age, and weddings. All of our other parties are more formal events where we must maintain a dignified appearance to retain our noble status.", Lilith stated, "If I am being honest, I have never been to such a lavish party in my entire life. You must really love your family to host such an event."
"I do love my family, they mean everything to me…I could not continue living without them.", I admitted to her, "Before I started on this journey through six different lifetimes, I was an ordinary human born into a middle-class family. From the day I was born, my parents thought of me as nothing more than an unwelcome, unhappy accident. While they did not physically abuse me, neither of them showed me love or affection at any point throughout my brief life. They provided me with everything I needed to live, but not a penny more was allotted to me than necessary. I learned to cook, clean, and do my own laundry by the age of five because they felt I was old enough to do it."
"I see…", she replied with a pained tone.
"All of that changed though when I reincarnated into Alestar and met my wives. They helped pull me out of that dark place with their love and affection. When they told me that we were expecting children, I swore then and there to be the father I always wanted.", I told her, "I shower my wives and children with all the love I have because that is how much they mean to me. They are my everything, and I would die to protect them."
Hearing her start to sniffle, I glanced over at Lilith who was staring into her wine glass. Recalling all the pain and suffering she had endured for a loveless marriage I imagined that she was quite jealous of my family. Pulling her next to me with telekinesis, I wrapped my right arm over her shoulder and began gently rubbing her arm. Laying her head on me, she let out a sigh as she closed her eyes for a moment.
"3!!", Serafall shouted.
"2!!", Runeas chimed in.
"1!!", Eri cheered.
Watching their score move to the top of the leaderboard, a victory alarm started to sound which startled them. Losing their concentration they missed a few moves which ended their run, but they had still done it. Walking off the dance pads the four of them let out a cry of victory as they high-fived one another>
"We did it, everyone!!", Lily proclaimed as all the children who had been watching cheered for them.
Pulling the of them in for a hug, Eri and Lily's heads were engulfed by Runeas' chest. Watching them begin to panic, they started wriggling around trying to get free of her. Taking a moment to realize what was wrong, she let them go and the two dramatically began gasping for air. Looking over at me with a ghost-white expression, Runeas must have thought I was going to kill her for the momentary slip-up.
"It is okay, they are teasing you.", I told Runeas telepathically as I saw the smirks on the girls' faces, "It is almost a daily occurrence with their mothers."
Looking over at my wives for a moment, Runeas understood what I meant. Turning her attention back to the two children, she began to playfully tickle them as revenge. Laughing with glee, Eri suggested that they run away from her.
"Run to safety!!", Lily laughed looking over at me, "Daddy will protect us!!"
Squirming away from her, the three children ran over to me and jumped into my arms. Tucking my phone back in my pocket, Eri began taunting Runeas and Serafall believing I would protect them. Looking at me for approval, I granted the two of them permission to approach.
"Oh no, run away to the ball pit!!", Eri shouted as the three of them ran off with the two Devils hot on their heels.
Watching the three dive into the ball pit, Serafall dove into the pit as well followed by Runeas. While Serafall slipped through without a problem, Runeas' butt and hips were just a bit too big. Trying to pull herself through, she ended up wedging herself in so she could not go forward and backward.
"Uh…I am stuck…", Runeas said with embarrassment, "Could someone please help me?"
Turning my head toward the Devil Group, her descendants looked away with embarrassment. I guessed that having their ancestor stuck in a child's ball pit was a bit much for them to process. Getting up from my seat, I walked over to the ball pit to see what I could do. While I had dozens of options available to me, there was only one way I was going to do this.
"Sorry about this.", I told her.
"Sorry for what?", she inquired unable to turn around and look, "Wait, where are you touching me!?"
Putting my hands on her butt, I gave her one good push which was enough to get her through. Falling into the ball pit, she immediately got back up and looked back at me with a flushed face.
"What do you think you are doing?", Runeas pouted.
"You were stuck so I gave you a push.", I remarked with a smirk, "Is that a problem?"
"Dirty old man…", she teased me as she stuck out her tongue.
Turning her attention back to the children, Runeas rejoined Serafall in pursuit of them. Leaving them to play together, I rejoined the other adults at the bar.
—Several Days Later, Melromarc—
"How are you feeling, old man?", I said walking into the Royal Study to check in on him.
Finding Mirellia and him going over paperwork, they set the documents aside to speak with me. Getting up from his seat, Aultcray flexed his muscles to show me he was as fit as a fiddle. Winding himself with just that his wife giggled at him, and told him to sit back down.
"He is still regaining his strength even though he does not want to admit it.", Mirellia told me, "How is Malty doing?"
"She has been sleeping quite a bit, Melty has been watching over her closely to make sure everything is alright.", I informed her as I took a seat, "I check on her every day and so far her healing progress is going well. At the rate she is going now, Malty should be physically recovered in a few weeks. The damage to her psyche will take many years to fix unfortunately, no amount of magic can undo that type of damage."
"We understand, at least she is free of that bitch Medea now.", Mirellia spat with a scowl, "I hope her last moments of existence were excruciating!"
Laughing at her comment, I could not agree more with her words. I could imagine Medea's screams of agony as her soul fragment within Malty was removed. Seeing it crumble away into nothingness, that bitch was now past tense and no longer a problem.
"Now that Medea has been dealt with, the Wave Organization is gone, and you are at peace with this world and your adjacent world…what will you do?", I asked them seriously.
"Well…", Mirellia said looking at Aultcray, "In a few months we will have our hands full with a new addition to the Royal Family."
Rubbing her stomach, I understood now why she was so desperate to save her husband. It had never occurred to me that she was pregnant when all of this was happening, but now it made sense.
"Congratulations!", I told them, "Who knew this old man had it still in him."
"I do not want to hear that from a man over five times my age!", Aultcray laughed.
"Haha, fair enough.", I agreed, "So do you know if it is a boy or a girl?"
"It is another boy!", Aultcray shouted with joy and a smile.
Knowing how happy inside he must be, I was grateful that I found a way to save him. Glancing over at Mirellia I noticed that she was not in such high spirits. Assuming that there was something else they needed to tell me, I asked if something was wrong with the baby.
"No, it has nothing to do with the baby.", Mirellia assured me, "It is just we have been discussing how to reward for saving Aultcray and bringing our baby girl back to us. Even though she only talked to me for a moment, I can tell the little girl I bore into this world is back. Words cannot begin to express how much we owe you for this."
"As you hold the highest title we can bestow you with, we have been racking our heads on how to reward you. You being a deity makes it incredibly difficult to give you anything as you can create it with your powers.", Aultcray admitted, "That is why we wanted to suggest an idea to you again. Would you consider marrying Malty and Melty?"
"Haha…wait what?", I asked for clarification, "Have we not already gone over this a few times before?"
Thinking that maybe he lost a memory or two during his coma, I was about to respond when he quickly cut me off.
"To be clear, we are not trying to strong-arm you into this!", Aultcray stated making sure that was crystal clear, "Please hear us out before making a decision."
"Alright, I will humor you.", I agreed.
"Melty has already asked us for permission to ask you when she turns twenty-one, she sees you as the ideal husband. The standard you have set is far too high for any eligible bachelor here to meet, you know this. Melty wants what your wives have, and she is willing to wait for you to finally accept her since her age is a problem for you.", Mirellia told me.
"Of course her age is a problem, I am not into little girls!", I acknowledged with a sigh, "Now then if she wants to broach this subject when she is older…I am not opposed to it. While I do not promise anything, I am willing to give her a chance. That said, Malty is a completely different matter. I understand that she is no longer under the influence of Medea, but you are asking a lot of me."
Nodding their heads, Mirellia insisted I at least give her a try like Melty. Admitting that it would be difficult to move past her prior transgressions, they hoped I could potentially forgive her.
"She is no longer the same Malty, you know this. While restoring her claim to the throne is out of the question, due to her mental instability, she should still have a chance at happiness. Malty is going to need a husband with patience and kindness to move past her trauma, anyone who would marry her here would destroy what is left of her psyche.", Mirellia remarked, "She has committed too many heinous crimes against our country for the nobility to forgive her. They would seize this opportunity to take their anger out on her, and we cannot bear the thought of her being beaten by her husband. At the very least, if you will not marry her, can you please keep her as a maid in your home?"
Seeing the logic in her thinking, I still found it hard to move past what she had done. Still, I had to admit that the Malty now was not the same Malty I knew. Medea's influence was gone, and in a few years, Malty would revert back to the personality the personality Medea had suppressed. Unsure exactly what sort of person she would become now, all I could do was wait and watch.
"I cannot give you an answer on Malty at the moment, there is just too much history there for me to make a decision on. Up till now my experience with Malty has been nothing short of hell, and frankly, I am inclined to just say now. Out of courtesy to you though, I will hold my decision and observe for myself how she turned out mentally. If she can impress me enough to forget what she has done, I can agree to give her a chance."
"Thank you, that is all we ask for.", Aultcray sighed with relief.
Wanting to get away from this topic as quickly as possible, I moved to the original reason for my visit today. Since I would be visiting Rory's world here soon, there was a high chance I would need to relocate people away from there for their own safety. If I did, I wanted to redirect them to Melromarc as I did not have housing readily available anywhere else at the moment. Till Bolton and his men freed up from Yasaka's territory, I had to improvise for the time being.
"Moving on…how would you feel about potentially double to tripling your population?", I inquired diving straight into it, "I have a group that may be in need of a new home, and I want to see what your thoughts were."