After being 'punished' by Michelle for forcing her to be reminded of her shameful past with me, Jasmine and Justina spent the rest of the day inside, getting to know everyone better as they'd now be living together; granted, Jasmine was the only one actively engaging, Justina just silently sat down. When night arrived, I cooked dinner, using a massive amount of ingredients given the many mouths I needed to feed, and unsurprisingly, everyone had gorged themselves on my dish while giving me nothing but praise, including Justina.
"This… This is better than the Royal Chef's! H-How do you do this, Alex!?" Jasmine asked as she looked up at me while noodles hung from her mouth, causing me to smirk and shake my head. "Sorry, Jasmine, but that's a secret; if I tell you, I won't get the pleasure of cooking for you again." Winking at Jasmine, who slightly blushed at my words, I chuckled while continuing to eat spaghetti, which was the dish I had made for tonight. Thankfully, I had bought a bigger table a few days back in preparation for when Jasmine arrived, so everyone could sit at the table; otherwise, I'd be sitting on Yuki's lap. 'Not that I would hate it, but it would be incredibly awkward to eat.'
Glancing at Yuki, whose face was a saucy mess, I softly sighed; despite asking her to show a little etiquette in front of Jasmine, she ignored my words. 'Haa, so much food; dinner alone probably cost nearly one silver.' One silver wasn't much for concern to us; we weren't wealthy, but we were decently well off, at least to the point where money wasn't a concern unless there was a big purchase like buying a house. 'However, for just dinner to be this expensive, food will cost around 2-3 silver a day if I include lunch, breakfast, and dinner.' Performing quick math in my head, I nearly choked on my food when I realized how much our food would cost per year. 'T-That's practically 11 fucking gold!'
"Haa, now I see why only the wealthy have multiple wives." "What did you say, Alex?" Asked Lazuli as she raised her head and glanced at me, prompting me to kiss her cheek. "Nothing, I was just talking to myself." Although paying for food would be extremely expensive, it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. Still, considering we've made seventy-five gold in the six years we've been here, excluding the gold earned from selling my blood, of course, we could cover the costs, but we'd need to start taking more lucrative jobs if we wanted to continue living comfortably.
'Haa, I'll think about this stuff later.' Shaking my head, I decided to save all the thinking for later and just enjoyed the time with my family, excluding Justina; as for Vanye and Jasmine, it was only a matter of time until I put a ring on their finger.
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A few days after Jasmine arrived, I hired professionals to finish our basement, which made living inside our house somewhat awkward; however, that was fine since we left Cassandra for a family honeymoon after marrying Michelle and Lazuli. Similar to Yuki, I hand-crafted a ring for them both with my blood inside, serving as an Epic artifact that warded off some curses, healed wounds, and protected them from any type of disease or pathogen. Unfortunately, my skills as a jeweler were still sub-par, but they loved it, and that's all that mattered to me.
For our honeymoon, we went further north and spent two weeks at a coastal resort, where we lived like royalty, and Jasmine seemed to enjoy watching our awkwardness as we adjusted to the way we were treated. Those two weeks were probably the most enjoyable and relaxing days of my life; granted, it was also hectic, especially when I taught everyone how to play volleyball, which I was surprised hadn't already existed, given that reincarnators were a thing. That was also the day when Yuki and Vanye's rivalry started, purely because Vanye couldn't beat Yuki in volleyball, though she, along with everyone else, got along really well.
Unfortunately for us, after two weeks, we returned home with Lazuli and I using [Mass Teleport], taking only a day of travel to cover nearly two hundred and fifty miles, which would take normal people almost a month. By the time we returned home, the contractors had finished the basement, allowing Vanye, Vanimo, and Jasmine to officially start living with us… I nearly forgot to add Justina.
As of right now, it's been two months since then, and Justina had left only a few days ago after ensuring the Church hadn't found out about Jasmine fleeing the continent; though, it was only a matter of time, but hopefully, by then, I'd be more than strong enough to protect her.
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Falling to the floor, I burned the disgusting brown blood off my swords and sheathed them onto my back just as a massive, reddish black bear, the size of an elephant, collapsed onto the ground behind me. Glancing behind me at the twenty-fifth-floor guardian of this epic dungeon, I flashed a faint smirk and raised my arms, excited about our victory. "Haha, we did it!" Running towards Yuki, who was sprawled on the ground, I picked her up in a bear hug and spun around. "O-Ouch; n-not so hard, Alex; blocking that guardian wasn't easy." Said Yuki with a deep and slightly muffled voice as she looked down at me while removing her mask, revealing her sweaty, hair-covered face to me, only for her to suddenly cough up blood.
"Hehe, sorry." Gently setting Yuki against the wall, I handed a vial of my blood as she'd used her's during the fight earlier and approached our three other party members. "How are you three?" Standing before Vanye, Lazuli, and Talis, I used [Heroes Gaze] to examine their bodies, which had seen better days. Lazuli had a cracked skull and a fractured spine. Vanye's prosthetic arm had a bite mark, and her left leg prosthetic was bent to the side; as for her flesh body, she had multiple deep gashes. Tali's was completely fine; she hadn't actually received a single attack from the guardian, which was good, since otherwise, we'd have been wiping her splattered body off the walls.
"Wonderful!" Said Talis while proudly lifting her head, causing me to chuckle as I fed both Vanye and Lazuli a vial of my blood. Since they weren't me, it would take several minutes for them to heal, so in the meantime, I butchered the guardian, stuffing as much of it as possible into my space pouch, which Jasmine had gifted me, and I used it for dungeon raiding as it's size was monstrous at twenty cubic meters! It was more than triple my previous one, allowing me to stuff the whole guardian inside of it. 'All right, the guardian will net us at least 8-9 gold alone! This was a fruitful run!' Although I felt excited at our deepest and most lucrative dungeon raid yet, it was quickly dampened when I saw everyone state.
'It did come at a cost, though.' Inwardly sighing, I had Yuki lean onto my shoulder as I brought her to Talis, Vanye, and Lazuli; grabbing them, I used [Mass Teleport], prompting us to appear within our backyard. I would've preferred fighting our way back out, but a single vial would only heal their most serious wounds, and I would rather not push them past their limits. 'Tsk dammit, I forget to erase my blood.' "Michelle, Vanimo! We're in the backyard!" Yelling into the house, I teleported back to the twenty-fifth floor, which was thankfully still empty of both adventures and the guardian, and quickly burnt any trace of my blood before returning home, only to see Jasmine using her magic to heal the three.
"Why are they so injured, Alex? Don't they always carry a vial of your 'potion'?" Asked Michelle in concern while I wryly smiled. "They do, and they used it… Matter of fact, I had just given them a second dose." Gently rubbing Michelle's shoulders, she and I silently watched as Jasmine healed them to tip-top shape, though doing so seemed to slightly exhaust her.
"Woah, I feel much better! This might be even better than Alex's blood. Thanks, Jasmine." Said Yuki with a grateful smile as she patted Jasmine's shoulder and stood up, while I slapped the back of her head. "S-Sorry, I-I meant 'potion'. A-Alex's potion." Rolling my eyes at Yuki, I returned to standing beside Michelle while Vanye and Lazuli thanked Jasmine.
With the threat of the Great Church finding us one day, I got stricter about the knowledge of my blood; if it was before, I was confident I'd be able to tell if someone was sneaking about our houses; after all, it would only make sense that someone around our strength or only a bit stronger would be sent after us. However, now, I've got to worry about possible artifacts blessed or enhanced by Goddess Jusnsuina that can block my eyes or who knows what else.
'The Church wants to kill Jasmine, but if they or anyone else finds out about my blood, things will get FAR worse.'