"No you can't go!" Mira wailed.
After the husband and his wives spent a few hours in the bath, they went to find their daughter who was overjoyed to see her father again.
Her joy did not last for long though, when he told her he was going to be leaving again in the morning and it would be for longer.
Seeing his daughter cry put Exedra in more pain than he could've ever imagined and knowing that he was the cause made it so much worse.
He could do nothing but hold onto his own daughter as she wailed furiously in his arms.
His wives who were nearby wore similar expressions.
They didn't want their husband to leave either, much less with some random woman.
But they understood that he was going to learn to better protect them and the life they led.
Even if they hated it, they knew they could not be mad at him for trying to make sure they were always safe and happy.
So they unanimously decided to support him in this as they do everything else.
As long as he did not bring home another woman of course.
"You can't leave you have to stay you have to!" Mira was becoming so unstable, ice was beginning to form around the father daughter duo causing her mothers to step back.
Even when Mira's cold began to burn his skin, Exedra made no move to stop her. He felt as if he deserved this much pain for all the hurt he was causing his sweet girl.
He just lightly stroked her hair and spoke to her in as soft a voice as he could muster. "I'm sorry Mira. I wish I didn't have to go but I have to get stronger so that I can take care of us."
"M-Mira can go with you to get strong!"
Exedra could only shake his head bitterly.
"I'm sorry but I have to do this alone. When you're a little bigger I promise we can go on our own little journey together."
Mira could only cry harder hearing her fathers refusal.
"You're gonna leave and you won't come back!"
Lisa was the first to realize what Mira was so afraid of.
The life they'd been living before was incomparable to this one and it wasn't because of the materialistic things, it was because neither of them could remember a time they smiled so often.
Taking the initiative to help out her struggling husband, Lisa hurriedly kneeled beside her husband and daughter.
"It's okay dear. Your father will always come back to us."
"And it's not like we'll be alone while we wait right?" Her cheerful tone an indication for the other wives to make their presence known.
Bekka hurriedly consoled her sniffling daughter with the opportunity presented by Lisa. "That's right my little dew drop! You have three whole mothers here to love on you and spoil you until your daddy comes back."
At this moment Lailah finally chirped up. "And he WILL come back. We're sad too but we have to be big girls and wait for him okay?"
Mira looked back and forth between her mothers before she finally looked up at her father once more.
"I will be back before you know it. I promise."
"Okay.."
Mira didn't like it at all but she had to believe in her father.
He'd never let her down before right?
So she had to be a big girl and be patient like her mothers.
Although she really hoped that he wouldn't take too long.
-
Not wanting to waste any time the next morning, Seras immediately appeared in Exedra's room to pick him up.
She expected to find him undressed or maybe even in the middle of some intimate acts with one of his wives.
Instead, she found him asleep in his bed with his wives and daughter.
Every one of the girls was clinging to him in some way, as if they didn't want to give him the slightest chance of escaping.
Seeing this, Seras could not help but show a sad smile. What wouldn't she give to have a family like this.
Seeing her apprentice so deep in sleep as well, she realized how comfortable his family made him.
He did not even notice her presence.
'Idiotic little prince.' She chuckled inwardly.
Despite that, she watched them sleep for a few minutes longer before waking him.
It would be a while before he got to be as carefree as this again.
After Seras woke him using telepathy, Exedra somehow managed to slip out of the grasp of his little fanclub.
Seras watched as Exedra wrote letters for each of them and left his daughter something extra special.
She wasn't sure what was on the letters but she thought it must've been warm words and apologies for leaving.
She almost felt guilty for dragging him away but at the end of the day, he had asked for this so there was nothing to feel guilty over.
'You have a beautiful family.' She told him telepathically.
Exedra stared at his sleeping family for a long time.
'Indeed I do.' Was his only reply.
After that he kissed each of their foreheads gently before Seras touched his shoulder and they disappeared from his room.
Not long after they left, one by one the girls all woke up.
Each of their eyes drifted to the spot where Exedra lay prior to his departure and they felt tears begin to well in their eyes.
One by one, they each began to weep silently as the reality of waking up just like this for the next few months finally set in.
-
In her room, Yara was doing only slightly better than the girls.
She never believed her son would actually leave her side one day as he'd never had a body that would allow him to.
It may have been strange but she felt like this was the first day she realized her son was really a man with a family of his own to protect and thus, something worth sacrificing for.
She was incredibly sad, and yet she was also indescribably proud.
Thinking back on the day she first found him after he'd been saved by Asherah, she couldn't help but smile when she remembered how she'd mistook him for her deceased husband.
"Asmodeus… guide our child."
With that small prayer, a single tear fell from the eye of a sad yet proud mother.