"Okay, Zephyra, this is a serious matter. It's been quite some time since we had our daughter. You can already eat by yourself, even if you can't eat normal food yet."

"You can already talk to people, even if it's just pretending, and you can even take care of yourself, although you spend most of your time in your room... So why the hell do you keep hitting Lycoris?!!" I ask Zephyra furiously.

Lycoris showed up crying in my office 3 hours ago, with Eclipsya and Azazel following her. Lycoris pointed to a clear red slap mark on her body – it was obvious who did it.

As if it wasn't enough that I'm still trying to get used to my body's new sensitivity, I have to come deal with her pulling this stunt! She literally delayed my plans to go to the Abyss!

I was already prepared to leave and was going to say goodbye to everyone an hour ago, but I had to comfort Lycoris and play with my three daughters for a while so she would forget that Zephyra hit her.

"P-Pandora... I-I..." Zephyra tries to speak, but just looks at the floor. However, the colors of her emotion show no remorse, only annoyance at having been caught.

"..." She falls silent, unable to find a response. But by some unbelievable twist of fate, Zephyra will be able to keep hitting Lycoris without any punishment.

Because I'm still going to the Abyss today, and I won't allow anyone to hit or punish my queen. Only I can punish her, and because of that, she'll be practically untouchable, regardless of whether she mistreats Lycoris or not.

'This really infuriates me...' My obsession with having her as mine makes me not want her to be hurt by anyone but me. Only I have the right to hit her. And because she's been having issues since she got pregnant, I've been quite lenient with her mistakes.

"Zephyra, tell me exactly why you hate Lycoris so much. That's an order," I say to her authoritatively. Zephyra has never told me the exact reason. She's shown hints of why, but never the precise cause.

Although I've more or less deduced the reason myself, I still want to hear it from her. Maybe if she hears herself saying the reason, she'll better understand what she's doing.

She bites her lips as tears stream down her face. She looks pitiful like this, but I hardly care whether she's pitiful or not.

"S-She... stole the affection th-that was meant for me... Sh-she's the reason y-you hurt me so much... I-I... can't like the one who m-made me suffer so much... Sh-she destroyed my life d-during those months," she says in a sad voice.

"..."

"Tsk." I click my tongue. Anyway, I can't interfere too much in this for now. Zephyra said more or less what I expected her answer to be. She 100% blames only Lycoris for me hurting her unintentionally.

'I can't fix how much I broke Zephyra, and it's not like I expected my daughters would never hurt each other...' Zephyra can't die while I live, and I know Lycoris would never hurt Zephyra because the two share a blood bond.

"Fine... Do whatever you want, Zephyra. I'll give orders to my servants to have them care for Lycoris most of the time. You'll only need to see her at specific moments of the day, like when it's time to feed her. I won't try to force you to love a child you don't want."

"And anyway, in at most 5 years she'll be an adult, and at that point you won't even need to see her if you don't want to." When I say this, Zephyra looks at me with a sweet expression, as if she's receiving a wonderful gift from the person she loves most.

"Th-Thank you..." She speaks as if I'm doing this just for her, but I'm also doing it for Lycoris, who will suffer from being the only one with a mother who doesn't like her.

Azazel has Grimm, who, however bizarre and sick she might be, still truly loves her. And Eclipsya has Tsukuyomi, who also truly loves her. But since they're both in the castle, I know Lycoris won't be completely alone.

Lycoris has many others to give her affection. I know it doesn't replace a mother's love, but it's what we have. Lycoris will have to make do with, at most, the affection from Azazel, Eclipsya, her hydra, and a few others.

'I need to ask Grimm and Tsukuyomi to keep an eye on Lycoris...' The most problematic thing would be if Zephyra tries to kill Lycoris. In that case, Grimm, Tsukuyomi, or any nearby servant will have permission to restrain Zephyra, even by force.

'Now that I stop to think about it, isn't it kind of irresponsible of me to go to the Abyss and just leave my daughters here to fend for themselves?... Well, who cares, right?! Hahahaha!' My mother also just left me here to fend for myself.

I think my daughters will manage just fine! Besides, it's true that I want to take care of my children, but I need to get stronger and kill Elysia! I can always have more children later!

There's still Delphina and Mikael to give me children! And nothing stops me from having more children with Zephyra or Grimm in the future!

"Well, Zephyra, since I'm going to the Abyss today, I'd like you to come to the castle's main hall to see me off. You'll do that for me, won't you?" I ask sweetly.

"Y-Yes, I-I'll be there..." She says nervously as I stroke her head. The touch of her hair feels strange because of the sensitivity, but it's not necessarily bad.

'I'm getting used to this well. As long as I don't do anything that causes sensory overload, I should be fine... which means no sex for the next few months.' I remove my hand from her and head for the door.

"I'm leaving for the Abyss in 5 hours. The people important to me will gather in the main hall a little before that. I hope to see you there, or I'll be furious... Also, try to be patient with Lycoris when she comes looking for food. It's still your duty as her mother to feed her."

"And I'll try to communicate with you using some magic I'll create through our bond! So maybe you'll hear my voice sometimes?! I'll still have to see how it works, but I'll try to communicate with you!" I am a goddess, so it should be possible.

Because Zephyra traded her original goddess for me – that was the reason she lost that ability from her status, since she abandoned her goddess to have me as her goddess, and she has also already received blessings from me.

'There's still Isabel... Well, I barely care about her, so I won't summon her to the castle. When I return from the Abyss, if she's still a virgin and still wants me to deflower her, then I'll do it.' I've already arranged most things in the castle so they'll be fine without me.

I've also created thousands of powerful shadows around the kingdom. So, even if dragons or elves attack my kingdom directly, they won't succeed even if I'm not here.

Because my power is still here, lurking beneath the soil, just waiting for threats to emerge.

'I hope the elves and dragons attack my kingdom in about 3 years...' I'd like my daughters to fight against enemy armies so they can evolve and learn to lead properly.

Besides, Grimm is here. She can handle any emergency, since Grimm is very strong.

"See you later, Zephyra. I have to go now." I say, giving Zephyra a kiss on the forehead and going to the door. As soon as I exit, I see Lycoris looking at me with tears in her eyes. She seems to have heard everything.

"..."

"Don't worry about it, daughter. Maybe one day Zephyra will start to love you." I say, picking her up in my arms. I won't lie to her if she already heard everything. Zephyra doesn't love her, and she knows it.

"B-Baah..." She makes a sad sound while hugging me. I think it's a shame, but there's nothing I can do. Lycoris will have to deal with this fact on her own.

'It's a good thing my mother likes me...' I can't even imagine how bad it would be if my mother didn't like me.

My daughter licks my cheek as I hold her tight. She's such a sweet little girl. If it weren't for the fact that I'm going to the Abyss today, Zephyra would be in deep trouble with the punishments I'd give her.

...

...

...

"Delphina-sama, everything is ready!" A maid bows before me, handing me a box containing various items.

"Excellent. On my end, everything is ready too," I say with a smile. The maids started helping me with my plans to punish Pandora, and incredibly, we grew a little closer.

I never had deep conversations with them before, but having Pandora as the sole focus of the conversation made it easy to connect with them a little to accomplish this.

'Pandora will undoubtedly see!!' What the maids brought are the final things I needed! I spent the last few days inside my room, where time passes slower, training extensively to endure for a long time without being dominated.

I also created spells and developed methods to reduce Pandora's abilities to the absolute maximum! I will undoubtedly come out on top this time and show her that she shouldn't relegate me to the background so many times.

'I need to activate the first step!' I use a grand spell that instantly covers the entire planetary system around us, the magic growing until it envelops the entire galaxy.

This spell is the [Pandora Radar] that I created specifically to kidnap Pandora. This spell works quite simply: it detects whether Pandora is within range and latches onto her.

So when Pandora leaves the Radar's range, she will be forcibly pulled to the location I set! With this, the moment Pandora tries to go to the Abyss will be the moment I punish her!

'You rarely lose by waiting, Pandora! Now it's my turn to retaliate against your antics!!!!'