CHAPTER 662: THE DELIGHTFUL RECOVERY

After the Arbiters vanished, the citizens became extremely busy repairing and fixing the broken city. While Asmodeus recovered, Lumina and the other wives also took it upon themselves to help reorganise and structure the city.

Alice, the chancellor and his main aide took control of the court with help from Velvet who commanded the Black Dragon Order. The strongest knights, whose main tasks involved clearing monsters and other creatures that lingered around the mana-enriched Demon Empire.

Vinea, as the sub-commander helped organise knights to clear the rubble and boulders too heavy for the normal demon citizens. She had the help of Erika who became her captain and close friend over the past few years.

"It looks like the city will soon recover." Lumina watched the half-restored city from the citadel. A task she imagined would take months transformed in a matter of days thanks to the magic of the Black Dragon Order.

She carried her four daughters with her extra limbs, lifting them high to see the city and other sights while performing her duties as one of the four heads of the merchants’ guild thanks to her patent on gold and silver arachne silk.

"Mommy~ where is dad?"

"I want to see father too!"

Miris and Aranya never held back, asking for what they wanted with a cute smile. Ophelia and Luthiel were a little more reserved as they peeked at Lumina, but didn’t ask.

"You want to see your father?" Lumina tilted her head, while overlooking Leviathan, Sariel and Riel patrolling the castle with the other Imperial Guard. "It should be fine... I think? Everyone’s so busy they wont get too jealous."

’Ever since he started that strange human’s meal plan... Darling has been sleeping more often, sometimes he doesn’t wake for days.’

Saki one of the many beastkin who lived in the citadel suggested for her lover and old friend of Asmodeus to come to the castle as a chef. Not long after that, his meal and dietary plan for the emperor started.

At first, some ingredients made Lumina and the others worry.

’But, darlings body... Mm...’

Her cheeks turned red as she remembered visiting him late at night with Serena to see the effects of the diet, exercise and training plan Asmodeus began. "Well, of course we can go see, but he might be sleeping. So you have to be good, okay girls?"

"Yes mommy~"

"Of course Mother."

"I’m always good Mama."

"Nn..."

She paused at the cute responses of her daughters, but knew they were sneaky and liked to make trouble the moment she turned away or needed to leave them with Gretel or another maid.

’Well they looked excited, and I want to see Darling too.’

Lumina took a deep breath and left the citadel walls heading to the medical ward in the eastern tower. She saw most of the other women, greeting them with a pleasant smile. Because each wife performed specific roles during the day, all arguments and problems became less prominent.

Velvet, Vinea, Erika and Leviathan took military roles which suited them most, while Sariel and Riel would sometimes help Velvet and other times they would help Lumina who spent most of her time looking after the children and producing elegant garments.

As for Yuina, Yumiko and Alice supported Asmodeus through paperwork, and his various democratic issues. Many of the beastkin sought Yuina to return for a second term as the Beast Empress, but she upheld the tradition happily.

Yuina guided Alice, as the chancellor and Yumiko as a sister.

Yumiko’s main tasks as the head consort beneath Serena were organising events and meetings between Asmodeus and his women and the harem itself.

’It’s quite amazing how we all mesh together... despite all the arguments a few years ago.’

Serena became the coordinator and managed the harem, keeping everything in order while also serving Asmodeus as his empress. She took part in most of the official meetings with other nations and negotiated deals with Alice at her side.

However, unlike the human harems. Serena always listened to the other ladies, and every woman was given a period where she acted in Serena’s place to help avoid stagnation and too many arguments starting.

"Phew..."

Lumina stood at the entrance of the imperial ward where Asmodeus rested from the world. ’It’s been a month since that battle... I wonder if he’s okay.’ She always wondered if she could do more to help him. The business took less than a third of her time, and she could finish faster if needed.

"Where’s dad?"

"Shhh... be quiet, remember daddy is a little sick."

"Mm, Miris will be good."

"Nn.... daddy..."

’Ophelia is such a daddy’s little girl, but she always hides it and acts stubborn.’ Lumina loved her daughters and how each one felt like a different aspect of her and Asmodeus mixed into a bite-sized version of herself.

"Don’t pout, Luthiel, Miri. Let’s take a look, here."

She lifted the girls towards the large glass window along the wall, which was a bit too high for them to see on the ground.

That’s when their eyes opened wide along with their mouths.

"Papa.... so cool."

Lumina watched their reactions with a curious grin. Their eyes shone with mana and divine aura just watching their father. It meant that whatever he was doing triggered not only their curiosity but made their little bodies resonate with him.

’What’s he doing?’ She became curious and peeked into the window.

***

Inside the training room, Asmodeus stood wearing a simple training outfit without his shirt, exposing the intricate tattoos on his chest, arms and legs, while clamping thick black devices to his wrists, ankles and abdomen.

"Ngh, these things are so heavy."

His body drowning in sweat as each blow took all his power to just to perform.

Bang!

His fist hit the solid training dummy, his knuckles bloodied and bruised, and yet he didn’t wince or show pain. He lunged forward with a knee to the solid dummy. The impact caused the room to shake as another dark bruise formed on his leg.

"Haa....haa...."

Asmodeus flicked and shook his arms to remove the weightless ache. "These bracelets are amazing... to think Serena and Velvet helped design them." A special anti-demon, anti-divine power item that limited his mana and magic power to a fraction of the usual amount. It did the same for his divine aura and thus forced him to use only his body’s natural strength.

’If only that were the end of it...’

In order to digest the monster meat that Ryo prepared for him in a variety of ways to mask the thick gamey taste, he needed to activate his muscles to stir the energy inside the meat to flow into his body.

They built the training dummy with the same principles as the anklet and wrist bracers.

But it absorbed physical, magical and divine force.

"Phew... that’s enough of a rest."

He narrowed his stance, breathing deeply with both hands raised high, and hands clenched.

Woosh!

Without power, he dashed forward, with a right straight, the blow smashing the surface before the suction absorbed half the power and energy and shot it right back at him, forcing Asmodeus to lift his knee to block the dummy’s attack.

The dummy was a mirror of Asmodeus.

He was training against his original strength, while sealing his.

Bang - Bang - Bang!

Asmodeus unleashed a series of blows, dozens of punches, elbows and kicks while forced to alternate between defence and attack against his own divine and magical powers perfectly synchronised.

This device was something that all his wives came together to design, with the help of Alan, the merchants’ guild and Ciela’s mother who convinced the dark elves to share their training technique with him.

Crack!

With a final palm, the dummy’s surface cracked, and with a loud noise it shattered into dust.

"That’s good, you’re done for today My Lord."

"Hah....hah.... that’s Majesty to you, damn sadistic chef."

He chuckled looking at Ryo who had lost most of his weight, now with muscular forearms and three beast girls helping him in the kitchen. He’d formed his own little harem. ’Well Alan helped him... I can’t believe when Alan learned that Ryo liked Akari and he stole her, that he’d help his former rival find happiness...’

"Well you said we can speak comfortably when alone, so stop being annoying. Ryuji."

"Hahaha, sure... so what’s on the menu today?" He collapsed to the ground, as cooling water flowed from the ceiling, another interesting magic tool developed by the merchants’ guild since Lumina took over. "It smells sweet, is it a dessert?"

"Yeah, you’ve been eating a lot of salty foods high in sodium recently, and Her Majesty Serena asked me to ensure your diet is more balanced."

"What a brilliant wife."

"My Saki is just as great."

"Don’t try to compete with your boss!"

"Haha, well it’s an exotic dish you’ll learn the ingredients when you eat it all."

The dish wasn’t large like usual, a small bowl of something iced, with a pale green colour which resembled mint ice-cream or sorbet. To finish was a glass of bright blue liquid, which made Asmodeus nervous.

’Ryo like’s to put weird things in these meals and pretend they’re normal...’

The moment Asmodeus put the glass to his lips nervously, that’s when the doors opened with a hiss and four little creatures lunged at him at light speed. "Eh?" The sudden movement caused him to swallow the bubbling blue drink instantly.

Gulp...

Asmodeus could only describe the feeling simply.

’It tastes like ass.’