Currently Abaddon was being besieged by his children.
His two daughters were sitting on his lap eagerly, while Apophis had shrunken back down into a child’s size so that he could sit on his father’s shoulders.
He felt a bit like santa claus wearing red clothes and asking children what kind of gifts they wanted, but there was really nothing to be done about it.
‘All I’m missing is the belly and a white beard.’ He thought with a chuckle. 𝚘𝐯𝑳xt.𝗰𝒪𝓜
“Alright, who wants to go first?” He asked.
“I want to eat cookies for every meal!” Mira said excitedly.
None were surprised that she was the first to make her wish known, nor were they surprised by the subject matter.
Abaddon put a hand to his chin and acted like he was thinking about something. “Hmm, every meal is a bit much… Isn’t it enough that you eat them in the mornings and after dinner?”
Mira suddenly made a horrified expression as if she couldn’t believe she’d been found out. “H-How does father know about the mornings?”
Early in the mornings before everyone would wake up, Mira and Lailah would sneak down to the kitchen and indulge their prevalent sweet tooths.
It was something that occurred by chance the first time, but it quickly turned into an almost everyday thing.
In the mornings where Lailah was too tired from sex with Abaddon at night, Mira would return back to bed, as the experience was no longer the same without her mother.
Their ‘secret cookie time’ was something that only the two of them knew about and it was an activity that both of them treasured greatly.
However, Abaddon fought the urge to laugh at his daughter’s question.
As a dragon, Abaddon should have been a pretty heavy sleeper.
However, when it involved one of his wives, he would always awaken at the slightest change from them.
He would watch Lailah quietly get dressed and leave the room every morning before sunrise, only to return 30 minutes later with cookie crumbs on her cheeks and with Mira’s scent all over her.
She would then quietly get undressed again and then climb back into bed as if nothing happened.
It would be even more surprising if he didn’t know.
“Ah… Don’t worry, your mother didn’t give you up but as her husband it’s my job to pay attention to her.” He explained.
Mira nodded slowly in understanding just as Abaddon seemed to finally finish deliberating.
“I don’t know if I can feed you cookies at every meal but how about we have our own secret cookie time with just the two of us?”
Mira’s eyes suddenly lit up like stars and she nodded her head so hard Abaddon believed that her horns would fall off. “Yes! Mira wants to eat cookies with daddy too!”
Once again, Abaddon was in awe in front of his first daughter’s powerful cuteness and he silently wondered how it was possible for her to also be so frighteningly bloodthirsty.
After patting Mira softly on the head, Apophis was the next one to state his desired reward.
“I want to visit a dungeon.”
It was a surprisingly simple request, but it was also one that caught Abaddon’s attention as being unusual.
“Is there a reason why you suddenly want to travel to a dungeon, son?”
Apophis looked rather silly while in this infantilized form, but he seemingly paid no mind to that as he tried to figure out how best to articulate his words.
“I… want to experience new things. If I do, maybe I might finally gain some insight into emotion so that I might better connect with all of you and help mother evolve.”
His lessons with Rita were only helping him to become better at speaking and how to react in certain situations.
But because he did not have any special feelings for her in particular, he learned that he must have been incapable of seeing her as a romantic interest.
Rita was not upset by this, and instead instructed Apophis to focus on other aspects of life outside of romance.
As a result, he thought about his family.
Each one of them was incredibly powerful in their own right, and he thought that they might have shared a love of battle that he was not privy to and thus, was unable to connect with them on a deeper level.
Despite Apophis’ nonchalant attitude, Abaddon could tell just how deeply buried this issue was within his son’s heart.
Apophis’ robotic like nature made it very difficult for one to read his thoughts and emotions, but as time progressed Abaddon was becoming more and more adept at understanding him.
“If you want to go to a dungeon then that’s fine. But I hope that you do not think for a second that you are missing something and thus, not apart of our family.
This is only a temporary issue, and one that is surely not deserving of your worry.”
Abaddon then began to think and plan out the steps necessary for his son’s wish.
“Give me a few weeks to progress a bit further in my training, and then we can go.”
If Abaddon was going to do this, he wanted all of his powers to be at a certain level of proficiency before embarking on such an adventure.
His history with dungeons had made him rather paranoid and he absolutely wanted to be at his best before stepping into one again.
“Mira wants to go too!”
“Mother Seras said I needed experience, so I think this could be good for me as well.”
To Abaddon’s surprise, both of his daughters also declared their desire to partake in this dungeon run.
Apophis did not seem to mind them tagging along, and the dragon merely nodded in agreement as they proceeded to make plans for their next dungeon run.
When it was all decided, it was finally Thea’s turn to voice her wish.
However, she surprised her father when her cheeks turned a rosy pink and she asked about someone other than herself.
“Can we bring Nita and her sisters here from Luxuria…? I-It seems like we’re going to be here for quite a while so it would be nice to have them around.”
Abaddon blinked several times as he tried to comprehend his daughter’s unexpected wish. “…That wouldn’t be a problem, but is that really all you want…?”
“Yes!” Thea said happily.
“Then, I suppose that’s doable.” Abaddon said with a nod. “I had no idea you were so close with the maids.”
Before Thea could say anything in response, Mira chose that moment to completely blow her cover.
“Big sister likes Nita!”
“M-Mira!”
“It is true.” Apophis confirmed. “Rita has also told me that the two of them flirt constantly, although I have yet to fully grasp-“
“A-Apophis! What are you saying in front of our father?!”
“The truth?”
“GAAAHHH!!”
The young girl began to panic, and she then tried to come up with any sort of dirt she could to take the attention off of herself and onto someone else. “A-Apophis went to a brothel!”
Again, Abaddon merely fell out of his chair from shock.
Unfortunately for Thea, Apophis had no intention to deny nor hide his night activity.
“I did, although I cannot say the experience was wholly enjoyable. After several hours spent intertwined with numerous women the room begins to get a bit-“
“What’s a brothel?” Mira suddenly asked.
“It’s-“
“Don’t.” Abaddon said as he rubbed his temples to calm his raging headache.
Suddenly he felt like he hadn’t been paying very much attention to his children at all.
He wondered if any of his wives knew about Thea’s interest in the youngest of the triplet maids, but he soon disproved that theory entirely.
‘If they already knew then there’s no way they wouldn’t have told me about it. Hell, they probably would’ve started planning the wedding already.’ he grumbled internally.
“Father?” Thea shakily asked. “Are you upset…?”
While Abaddon was upset, it was not for the reasons that Thea assumed.
This whole debacle had been one giant reminder that his sweet little girl was now an adult by this world’s standards!
eαglesnᴏνel That obviously meant that she was going to start developing romantic interests!
Soon she was going to leave him behind to start a harem of her own and he wasn’t ready for that!
“No, I’m not upset. I just always thought I’d have a bit more time…” He said sadly.
Thea blinked her eyes in confusion before she realized where her father’s sadness was stemming from.
Suddenly, the young girl threw her arms around her father’s neck and buried her face into his chest.
“You needn’t worry. No matter what happens I will always be your daughter and I will never leave your side.”
For the first time, Abaddon understood Helios’ desire to keep Yara locked up within his castle.
There was a powerlessness that came with watching your child grow up that both terrifies and amazes you.
However, Abaddon did not to repeat the mistakes that his grandfather had made with his mother.
Even if it was painful, he would allow Thea to do as she pleased as he trusted her judgement.
It also helped considerably that the one she ended up being interested in was someone that he already had a very high opinion of.
If Thea had’ve fallen for some strange man instead, he undoubtedly would have had a much poorer reaction.
As Abaddon returned his daughter’s tender hug, he suddenly remembered another piece of information that he just learned.
“Apophis… did you really go to a brothel…?”
“I did, father.” the boy nodded without an ounce of shame as if he did not understand how awkward this conversation should have been.
Finally, Abaddon felt like he’d had enough adult talk for today and began playing with his youngest daughter’s soft cheeks to ease his mind.
“Mira… you’re definitely not allowed to get any bigger than this.”
“Uwah?”