3rd POV
Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Duke Vendom stared out the windows of his office, gazing down at his courtyard with an impassive expression. While observing his own estate, the door to his office opened, and footsteps approached him before stopping just before his desk.
"The job, Cleo?" Turning his head slightly, Vendom glanced at Cleo, an Elven woman, who bowed slightly while biting her lip. "A failure, Duke." At her words, a bout of silence presided within the room before Vendom slowly turned, his large, heavy body causing the wood floor to creak ever so slightly as he sat down in his chair while eyeing Cleo.
"Which failure is this? I've forgotten over the years." "I-It's the 24th failure, Sir." Cleo stood upright while hesitantly responding, causing Vendom to slowly nod while tapping his finger on his desk. "From those failures, what have we learned, Cleo?" "R-Regretably not much, Sir. We know Cou–Marquis Vestalis is capable of detecting spies and those with ulterior motives, and he takes his family's protection quite seriously. We know of his daily habits and routine, but nothing more in-depth."
Listening to Cleo speak, Vendom closed his eyes and leaned back, facing the ceiling while thoughts flashed through his mind. "So, we still don't know how he manufactures Televisions?" "No, Sir. No one does, not even the Royal Family." Turning in his seat, Vendom faced a TV placed upon a shelf on the wall. "So, you expect me to believe that every single Television has a mana crystal within each one? How many has he sold over the last five years? 2,000? 3,000? It doesn't make sense!"
Growing a little heated, Vendom clenched his fist and lightly struck his desk, breaking it, then exhaled, calming down. "Even when we mentioned this to the King, he just brushed us off; I didn't expect him to listen to our complaints, but I figured he'd at least conduct his own investigation." "I-It seems the King only cares about the flow of money; so long as he continues to receive money, he will show no interest in investigating Marquis Vestalis." At Cleo's words, Vendom snorted.
"Stopping the steady flow of money isn't possible; even if I use my influence to threaten others to not purchase any Televisions, Vestalis will simply focus on selling to those outside the Kingdom, which he's already beginning to do." Rubbing his chin with a frown, Vendom stared at the TV. "R-Regarding that, Sir, I received a letter from someone in the Blacy Kingdom. They'd like to meet with you regarding the TVs."
Raising an eyebrow, Vendom turned and glanced at Cleo, a calculating glint appearing in his eyes before he waved his hand. "Keep them on hold for; I can't make them think I'm desperate." While Cleo nodded, the office descended into silence for a few moments before being broken. "Cleo, you said he takes his family's security seriously?" A faint, wicked smirk donned his face as he looked at Cleo.
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Alexander POV
"Heh, we finally did it!" Sitting atop the body of a small, heavily damaged mountain, I raised my two greatswords, Zartha and Trina, into the air while looking down at my wives, all of whom looked like they had just escaped death. "D-Did he say something?" Yuki, leaning against the wall, glanced at Jasmine, who was sprawled on her back. "I-I don't know, my ears are s-still ringing."
"That was a long fight." Talis came swooping down beside me, hovering above me, looking fine except for the moderate exhaustion on her face. "Long? It was only… 5 hours. I don't think I'd consider that long." Briefly checking my pocket watch, I glanced back at Talis while overhearing Vanye groan, causing me to chuckle.
Baptizing my greatswords in flames, I absorbed them into my body before leaping down from the peak of the small mountain, which was actually a crab-like monster, and the guardian of the thirty-fifth floor. Although our wealth has grown tremendously over the last five years, we still like adventuring; granted, Jasmine isn't really a fan of dungeon diving, which was actually my favorite.
'You get to kill an endless amount of monsters to farm experience? It was the perfect environment to grow stronger; how could one not like it?' Shaking my head slightly, I landed beside Lazuli, who was in low-power mode, and picked her up, hoisting her onto my shoulder. "Who else needs help?" "Me." "Me." "Me." Glancing at the three of them, my face twitched, though I didn't reprimand them as they were injured and thoroughly exhausted, even the vials of my blood they consumed during the fight weren't helping them anymore.
I picked up Jasmine and Vanye next, tossing the former over my other shoulder while holding the latter in a princess carry. "I'll return for you, Yuki." "Ugh." Using [Mass Teleport], we appeared within our estate, specifically within our mansion, just outside a room in the left-most wing, which was basically a mini-infirmary.
"Doctor, I've got some patients for you." Pushing the door open, entering the room, I placed my wives down on three beds, while our Doctor, who was in her own little office, exited her room; our Doctor was a spider demi-human. She looked mostly human, but she had eight eyes and four spidery legs that sprouted from her back; she could also create webs from her wrists.
"Oh my, Sir Vestalis, they are quite injured." Wearing a surprised expression, she observes the others before tending to Vanye, who was the most injured among them all, shooting webs while using her four limbs to create a bandage from her webs, which she used to wrap around her injuries.
"That's not all of them, Doctor." Flashing a smirk, I returned to the thirty-fifth floor of the dungeon using [Teleport], where I picked up Yuki while Talis perched herself on my shoulders. "Talis, why do you still not wear underwear?" Avoiding looking up, I teleported us back to the infirmary while setting Yuki down on the jumbo-bed. "You also don't wear underwear." "Tsk." Snorting, unable to rebuke Talis since even after twenty-four years, I still haven't gotten rid of the habit I'd picked up from Master.
Leaving the infirmary, I headed to my room, where I stripped, dropping my armor to the ground and letting the servants deal with it while I entered the bathroom for a deep, cleansing shower. When I finished, I donned normal attire and headed to the kitchen to cook a meal for my hospitlazed wives.
"You need something?" Flipping the steak over, I moved over to the other pan, stirring the gravy while glancing at Mavis. "You got a stable route into the Blacy Kingdom… You're welcome." Folding her arms, Mavis gave me a once-over before leaning against the counter while I raised an eyebrow. "Thanks… Why do you keep looking at me?" I got no response; she just raised an eyebrow, prompting me to click my tongue.
"Alright, fine, just because I'm in a good mood. Don't take more than you're supposed to." Unbuttoning the top buttons, I pushed my collar side, allowing Mavis free access to my neck, causing her to flash a smile as she stepped forward, biting down on my neck, sucking my blood. She swallowed my blood for a solid ten seconds before backing away, my wound healing nearly instantly while she fixed my shirt.
"If someone didn't know better, they might think you're my wife." Shooting Mavis a glance, I poured rice and water together, set the heat to low as it cooked, then checked the steaks again. "Are you insinuating something?" "Nothing more than that's already present." Faintly nodding, Mavis turned and left, walking off while I continued cooking.
Ever since I first had Mavis help me with paperwork, I'd slowly brought her more into my business during the last five years, and now, she was basically the head of Vertainment; she managed everything. To put it simply, she was the CEO, and I was the shareholder of Vertainment. While a part of me doesn't want to admit it, as I still have misgivings about how she treated me all those years ago, Vertainment has flourished under her command.
She's performed better than I ever could've, though granted, she has centuries of experience, so it's no surprise; however, because of that, we've spent a lot of time together, more than I would've liked to at the beginning, but now… Now I felt conflicted. It's been nine years, almost a decade, since we first met on Daemon Continent. A lot of things have happened between us; our relationship wasn't built on friendly interactions. If anything, it was the complete opposite.
However, even if I wanted to deny it, a part of me has grown fond of her; it wasn't love, but I couldn't deny I felt attracted to her, and it wasn't solely on the physical level. It made me conflicted, as I still hated her for attacking us. As for what she did to me personally, I don't know if I've forgiven her for that yet, but I know I could at least look past it. I couldn't do that for the other thing, though.
'I wonder how she feels, though. Is she still as angry as she was 8 years ago?'