"Well, since you two are already here…"
Lucian finally spoke, his voice carrying a hint of teasing as his gaze swept over the three of them.
"Don't leave."
As soon as these words left Lucian's mouth, before Robin and Serfina could react, he reached out!
With his left hand, he wrapped his arm around Robin's slender waist!
With his right hand, he grasped Serfina's soft wrist and gave a slight tug!
"Kya!"
Robin let out a soft cry as she was pulled off balance, stumbling straight into Lucian's arms.
Serfina also gave a low exclamation of surprise, taking a step forward as Lucian pulled her, until her body was almost pressed against his side.
Now, Acheron was on his left, Serfina was on his right, while Robin was right in front of him, within his embrace.
Robin, who was the closest to Lucian, could clearly smell the fresh masculine scent on him, along with the faint trace left by his kiss with Acheron. As her heart began to race wildly, Robin's small hand pressed against his chest, wanting to push him away, but unfortunately, she lacked the strength.
"Lucian... you..."
Robin spoke softly and shyly, wanting to complain, but then paused, not continuing.
Serfina, feeling the warmth of Lucian's palm through his grip on her wrist, felt the gentle smile on her face deepen, her eyes filled with indulgence.
"Looks like tonight… is destined to be anything but peaceful..."
Serfina, not struggling like Robin, spoke softly and lightly squeezed Lucian's hand in return.
Lucian, enveloped by three different fragrances, felt the soft warmth surrounding him and sensed the three pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"Ahem…"
Seeing that both Robin and Acheron looked a little awkward, Lucian coughed awkwardly and then spoke up in a slightly gentler voice.
"If you still need time to understand things, then tonight—"
"Understand what?" Serfina raised a finger and gently pressed it against Lucian's lips, stopping his words. "Lucian, the night is long—there's plenty of time to understand each other... slowly..."
As these words fell, Serfina leaned close to Lucian's ear, her breath warm and fragrant.
"Now, the important thing is... the three of us—you can't leave any one of us behind..."
Just like that, with Serfina's words as the trigger, a few moments later, as moonlight fell sparingly, illuminating only one corner at the edge of the bed, three traces of different colors were pulled, kneaded, and entwined by a powerful force.
Cool white, hazy red, gentle pink—their boundaries blurred and dissolved amid heated breaths and silent struggles.
Suppressed moans became especially clear in the stillness, like strings being plucked, each tremor carrying an inexpressible flutter of emotion. Different scents fermented in the air, brewing into a strong liquor called lust.
Chaos was the only melody in that moment.
In the room, the one who dominated was like the most insatiable glutton, tirelessly savoring every distinct flavor within this blaze of lust he had ignited with his own hands.
Eventually, the moonlight quietly shifted, stretching the shadows longer and letting them sink deeper into the room's darkness.
===
Meanwhile, at the edge of the Jarilo star system, a light reconnaissance spaceship was slowly approaching Jarilo-VI.
Inside the ship, Bronya and Seele were sitting side by side in the cockpit of the spaceship.
As Lucian had arranged, the two of them were now serving as diplomats of Jarilo-VI, and they had just finished discussing official affairs with Neergul on Koolur and were on their way back.
"Bronya, that woman named Neergul is kinda weird," Seele said casually, lifting dumbbells up and down with her delicate hands. "I mean, the second my master's name came up, she just wouldn't stop yapping."
"Seele, it's 'talking,' not 'yapping,'" Bronya reprimanded calmly after taking a sip of her coffee. "Now, you are a diplomat representing Belobog and Jarilo, so use proper words. You still need to study harder."
"Tch, whatever..." Seele clicked her tongue, sounding annoyed. "I like piloting mechs more anyway. When Master gets back, I'm gonna cling to him 'til he gives me the newest model."
"But if you can't read, even the manual—"
Bronya wanted to remind Seele about her ongoing struggle with reading, but Seele interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.
"Bronya, don't change the subject! I'm talking about that black fox woman. I'm not blind—she's definitely into my master!"
"Well, that's normal..." Bronya said softly, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Lord Lucian is too outstanding, so it's only natural that a lot of people like him."
Whenever Bronya talked about romantic matters involving Lucian, a gentle warmth crept onto her face without her noticing.
"What about you? You like my master too?"
Seele leaned closer to Bronya and asked curiously, her eyes fixed on her reaction.
"Me...? Why would I tell you?"
Bronya, not as straightforward and blunt as Seele, set down her coffee and stood up to avoid her, feeling far too embarrassed to admit her true feelings.
"Fine, keep it to yourself. Just don't go sneaking around trying to seduce my master someday."
Seele looked at Bronya with a half-smile that was more teasing than serious.
"Quit talking nonsense!"
Bronya blushed, looking both shy and indignant, yet her mind recalled what her mother had once told her about how 'a family's benefits should not be given to outsiders,' making her unable to help but wonder whether, after Lucian had been away for so long, those so-called 'benefits' had already flowed to some unknown women out there.
Soon enough, while the two of them were fooling around, Seele suddenly noticed something ahead of the spaceship.
"Hey, Bronya, look!"
Seele exclaimed, pointing straight ahead of their spaceship.
Bronya followed the direction of her gesture, then frowned slightly as she realized that their spaceship had apparently gone the wrong way.
Why had she assumed their spaceship had gone the wrong way?
Because ahead of them—where there should have been nothing but space filled with space debris—stood an unfamiliar planet, and, surprisingly enough, it appeared to possess human civilization.
"Bronya... you sure this route isn't wrong? Feels like we ended up at someone else's place..."
Seele could not help but ask, her tone filled with doubt.
"No... the coordinates are correct, the route is correct, and the astral chart scan has confirmed our position..." Bronya replied in her usual calm voice, yet confusion still lay deep within her eyes. "Everything was fine on the way here, so why did an unfamiliar planet suddenly appear on the way back...?"
It was as if the planet had appeared out of thin air.
"So what now?" Seele asked while scratching the back of her head. "Maybe... you wanna let your mom know first?"
"Mm, we can only do that," Bronya replied while nodding, then initiated the landing procedure. "We'll request support from home, then land to investigate. We'll stay on that planet and keep watch before the support arrives."
With that, Bronya set the spaceship's destination toward the unknown planet.
A few minutes later, the spaceship passed through the unknown planet's atmosphere and landed on the outskirts of a massive city.
*Psss—*
As the spaceship hatch opened, Bronya and Seele stepped out, and in that instant, fresh air rushed toward them. As soon as they saw what lay before them, their eyes couldn't help but widen slightly.
Before their eyes stood a modern, almost futuristic city, with skyscrapers rising everywhere and trees in full bloom, brimming with vitality.
"Whoa..." Seele couldn't help but sigh in awe. "Not gonna lie, this place... It's really nice..."
===
A few minutes ago, inside the living room of a hillside house in Izumo, Kyuushou and the other guardians were chattering as they discussed their current situation.
"You know, I just had a terrifying dream..." Kyuusyou said, holding her head as she thought deeply. "I dreamed that we all died—some killed by the kami, some killed by some of us after becoming oni... In any case, all of us were dead..."
"I dreamed it too..." Bianka said with a frown, pondering. "Honestly, it didn't feel like a dream at all... If you all weren't standing here, I would've thought I was already dead..."
"Izumo… still exists..." Sakura murmured dazedly, gazing toward the blue sky outside the window. "Thank god..."
All of them could not help but feel emotional.
Just moments ago, all of them had woken up one after another, only to discover that they had, in fact, shared the same dream of Izumo's destruction and the death of all their people.
Fortunately, it was only a dream.
From what they could see now, Izumo was still here, standing firm, and so were their sisters.
"By the way, where's Mei?" Kiana asked in confusion, glancing at everyone. "Where did she go?"
Sadly, no one could answer her question.
Earlier, they had searched everywhere yet still could not find Mei, and had also tried calling her, only to discover that her phone number, strangely, did not exist.
"It's weird, like, way too weird..." Himiko muttered with a frown, sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed. "It's like the whole world just changed after one sleep..."
"..."
As everyone fell silent, lost in their own thoughts, Sirin suddenly turned her head toward the sky as she sensed that a spaceship had just passed through Sky's barrier.
"Kyuushou, a spaceship just came in... landing not far from Wagatsuma..." Seele said with a frown. "It seems to be a spaceship from Jarilo-VI...? It didn't trigger Sky's defense."
"A spaceship from Jarilo?" Kyuushou said, her brows raising slightly as she put on her coat and monocle. "Hmm, alright, we should go welcome our neighbor. Maybe we can find something useful for our situation."
Izumo had, after all, relocated into the star system inhabited by Jarilo-VI, and over the years, their contact with it had been the closest.
With that, Sirin quietly chanted Sky's mantra, and soon the air around the group distorted before they vanished from the living room.
===
On the other side, Bronya and Seele were still scanning the surface for biological signals when suddenly—
*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*
*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*
One after another, several figures appeared around them like ghosts, instantly forming an encircling ring.
Suddenly surrounded by unknown people, Bronya's pupils shrank, and she instinctively reached for her gun on her back.
Seele immediately shifted into a combat stance, ready to summon her mech.
Surrounding them were twelve women, each with a different style but all exceptionally beautiful and emitting an unusual aura. At the front stood a young woman in a neat military uniform, her presence naturally commanding, indicating that she was evidently the leader of these women.
"Friends from Jarilo-VI, what are you looking for by landing here near Wagatsuma? Shouldn't you land at the authorized hangar in Amatsukuni?"
Kyuusyou took a step forward and asked calmly, glancing at Bronya and Seele, then at the parked spaceship nearby.
Bronya and Seele looked at the twelve of them—each had distinct traits, yet there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity when they saw these twelve women. Especially when looking at Kiana and Sirin, Bronya felt that their faces made her feel strangely close, as if she had seen them in some kind of dream or experienced some kind of deja vu.
Seele went even further and pointed at Kiana.
"Hey, white hair! I think I kinda dreamed about you!"
"Me?" Kiana blinked her eyes in confusion and pointed at her own face. "Uhh, but I've never seen you before..."
"Excuse me, are you by any chance Idiot Kiana?"
Before Seele could respond, Bronya suddenly blurted this question out.
"Idiot... Kiana?"
Kiana muttered slowly, the corner of her lips twitching unconsciously.
"Yeah, yeah, that's right! Kiana's an idiot! Hahaha—!"
Senti suddenly chimed in with a big smile, then burst out laughing.
"I'm not an idiot!"
Kiana retorted with a frown, gazing sharply at Senti.
Even though she knew it was clearly rude, Bronya did not know why, but she felt an inexplicable urge to say 'Idiot Kiana' for no reason at all.
Looking at the angry Kiana, Bronya sighed quietly, suppressed the strange feeling in her heart, and then spoke again.
"We are the delegation of Jarilo-VI. I'm sorry, but this planet suddenly appeared in our star system, so we came to investigate..." Bronya paused for a moment, then continued with a hesitant expression. "Are you people… this planet's inhabitants? Who is your leader?"
"What? Don't you know us? You don't even know our boss?"
Kyuushou asked Bronya in confusion, looking surprised.
"Boss? Who?"
Seele asked curiously, scratching the back of her head.
"Lucian, of course," Kyuushou replied with a deep frown. "You don't even know him? Don't tell me... you're spies pretending to be Jarilo-VI's delegation?"
As soon as these words left Kyuushou's mouth, the expressions of the eleven women behind her changed, and their guard immediately went up.
Clearly, they were ready to act and capture these spies pretending to be Jarilo-VI's delegation at any moment.
"Whoa, whoa, we're on the same side! Same side!" Seele shouted hurriedly, frantically waving her hands. "We're his people too! Calm the hell down!"
"His people, you say?" Sakura questioned, her gaze sharpening. "In that case, what is your relationship with him?"
"I am Lord Lucian's subordinate."
Bronya replied frankly, her face calm and composed.
"I'm his disciple..." Seele replied just as frankly, pointing at herself with her thumb, then shot the question right back, "What about you guys? What's your relationship with my master?"
Kyuushou and the other eleven exchanged silent glances, then glanced back at Bronya and Seele before answering in unison:
""We are all his wives.""
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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