Currently, Abaddon and his family were seated at a large dining table in the garden.
Ever since the flight ceremony earlier, the dragon had been receiving more intense stares than usual due to his nature as a three headed dragon being revealed, but he couldn’t care less.
His sole focus was on the cute young ice dragon on his lap who was picking food off his plate and eyeing it carefully.
“Daddy, what is this stuff?”
“Escargot.” Abaddon explained carefully.
Mira carefully analyzed the strange food on her father’s plate before deciding she did not want to be adventurous and try it. “All of this food looks yucky.”
Abaddon chuckled and began lightly patting his daughter’s hair. “The party will be over soon, so if you like we can go home and have the triplets make you a late snack.”
Mira’s eyes became as big as saucers when her fathers words finally sank in. “Cookies??”
“If you like.”
“Hehehe!”
This sweet father daughter scene had been going on for some time and Mira wasn’t the only one receiving special treatment.
Abaddon was seated with both of his children on either side of him and was unwilling to let either of them move for any reason.
This day had been a painful reminder that his children were not going to stay by his side forever so he wanted to enjoy their presence while he still had the time.
He had already lost five years of Thea’s life and even though it was for a good reason, he couldn’t help but feel slightly melancholic over the whole situation.
Though he would never tell her that as he didn’t want her to feel guilty for leaving.
“Husband… can you hand Mira to me instead?” Bekka suddenly asked.
“Or me?” said Seras.
“Ah…I don’t mind but is there a reason you want her so suddenly?” Abaddon didn’t really want to give his youngest daughter up but when it came to his wives he had no choice.
Lailah glanced at their surroundings with unfriendly eyes that seemed to be filled with hate.
“It is so that this lovely wedding does not see a rapid decline in guests.”
At first, Abaddon did not understand her anger but when he stopped to pay attention, he quickly grasped the reason for her irritation.
The eyes of almost every woman in the party were trained on him and him alone.
Women of all ages and appearances were staring at him as if they wanted to swallow him whole, and while he was not unused to such looks, the ones he was receiving now contained a special kind of intensity.
There was something very alluring about a man who was good with children, and Abaddon’s natural fatherly demeanor was attracting women in droves.
He could feel their overwhelming desire to give Mira a few younger siblings.
“Just because we can’t kill anyone during the party doesn’t mean we can’t do so after, right?” Valerie asked dangerously.
“After is not during so we should be justified, shouldn’t we?” Audrina agreed.
“As long as we do not spill blood within this beautiful garden, I believe it can all be overlooked.” added Eris.
“I believe that we should divide the work evenly.” Lisa suggested. “Everyone should pluck a certain number of weeds to ensure the utmost efficiency, agreed?”
“”””””Agreed.””””””
As the girls made plans to kill every woman with wandering eyes, a guest finally appeared at the table to put their plans on hold.
“My nephew, how scary~”
Everyone present turned to find Leviathan slithering up to Abaddon from behind wearing a provocative smirk.
“I had almost forgotten how possessive women who’d tasted the sin of lust could be. It is always a rather amusing sight to behold.”
Abaddon gave Leviathan a dry look as he pretended not to know why she was here.
“Can I help you, envy? I doubt that you have come here just to ogle my family and make unnecessary remarks.”
“My my, our youngest is so cold! But you are right, you seemed to have no intentions of coming to us so I had no choice but to pursue you instead. I wonder if I can persuade you to come along with me?”
Abaddon pretended to think about it before giving Mira a small kiss on her forehead and sending her into Bekka’s arms.
The dragon stood up from his chair and followed Leviathan to a more isolated table filled with VVIPs.
Valerica, Darius, and Belphegor were all seated and looked to be analyzing their newest arrival.
“I brought him~” Leviathan said happily as she returned to her place next to Belphegor.
“You’ve… grown considerably since I’ve last seen you… Evolving twice within the span of a few months… What criminally unfair luck.” The demon lord grumbled.
Across the table, both Darius and Valerica began looking at Abaddon like he was some sort of walking freak of nature.
“A great many things become possible once you step outside your own four walls , uncle. You should try it sometime.” Abaddon replied casually as he took a seat.
“…Pass.”
The table occupants merely rolled their eyes as Darius finally decided it had been too long since he’d heard his own voice.
“So you’re this ‘Red King’ I’ve been hearing so much about! Tell me, did you get that name from the rivers of blood you leave in your wake or is it a bit more on the nose?” Darius asked as he pointed to Abaddon’s long red hair. 𝑂𝗏𝔩xt.𝑐𝔬
“… Does anyone have anything meaningful to say or shall I just go back to my family?”
Abaddon’s unfriendly and distant nature earned a round of snickers from the two women at the table, yet Darius seemed to be unfazed by this.
“I’d already learned this earlier but you aren’t a very talkative lad, are you? Part of being a successful noble is learning the art of small talk you know?”
“I’m not a big fan of strangers. No matter what title they hold or trinket rests upon their head.”
Finally, Valerica leaned forward and began eyeing Abaddon intensely. “How strange… Are you sure that you are the spawn of Asmodeus?”
Abaddon did not shy away from her gaze and instead met it head on. “More silly questions?”
Abaddon believed her to be joking but Valerica was deadly serious.
Aside from both being incubi, the two were such polar opposites that it was laughable.
One was a loud, arrogant, overconfident demon who was always the same no matter who he was around.
The other was a quiet and reserved individual who seemed to care for nothing but his children and the seven women around him.
Even if Asmodeus was happily married to only one woman now, that level of maturity took him eons to reach.
She wondered just how Abaddon, who despite being immensely more attractive, seemed to have no interest in women other than the ones he already had.
It was astounding and it left her wanting to understand more.
“Would your kingdom ever consider joining hands with mine?” She suddenly asked.
The red king swatted away the hand of his aunt that was trying to remove his earring from his ear as he answered.
“I don’t see why that would be necessary.”
“Necessary may be a bit of a stretch, but my son seems to be quite taken with your eldest daughter.”
‘So that was why that urchin was staring at my table all night…’ Abaddon thought in annoyance.
The gaze of the phoenix prince was less than discreet, so much so that it required a great deal of effort on Abaddon’s part not to pluck his eyes from his skull.
“The relationships my children form are up to their discretion and their discretion alone. It is not something for myself, nor others to interfere in.” He answered flatly.
Mira, Thea, and Apophis were their own people who deserved to find partners whom they loved on their own, not be forced into marriages with those they had never even met.
“I see… you have my apologies then.” Valerica said respectfully.
Abaddon was left slightly taken aback.
From the observations he’d made tonight, the phoenix queen was a rather prideful and arrogant woman who seemed to look down on almost everyone.
And yet this same woman was now apologizing sincerely for her mistake, and in doing so acknowledging him as an equal despite being weaker than she was.
‘Is it because I rule Upyr…? Or is she acting this way because of my father?’ He wondered.
Eventually, he waived away her apology and the conversation turned to Luxuria as a whole.
“This nation of yours is the talk of the whole world these days. They say everything from the architecture, to the scenery, and even the citizens are all beautiful beyond belief. I’m a bit curious about something though.” Darius suddenly said.
Abaddon figured the conversation would come to this eventually and did not shy away from it. “I can attempt to alleviate your curiosity, provided that your mind has not already been ruined by alcohol.”
The dwarven king laughed heartily as he gave himself a few hard smacks on his head. “Ha! Don’t you worry about that lad, It’ll take more than these pansy ass drinks to make me senile, I can assure you of that!”
“But I wonder… why does a man who already has what many to be the new jewel of this world in his palm, need to go and conquer Upyr? You hardly seem like a man with insatiable greed.”
Through this question, Abaddon was able to confirm his initial assessment of Darius.
He pretends to be nothing more than a random drunkard that you could find anywhere, but the dragon had seen enough drunken antics from his life as Carter to know that he was faking.
In reality, he was sharp as a blade and more crafty than a fox.
“Say what you really mean, dwarf.”
Darius smiled and revealed his mouthful of golden teeth. “Ah… I suppose what I really want to know is, how long before you come for my kingdom, or even Erica’s?”
Both Belphegor and Leviathan looked back and forth between the old man and the dragon in confusion.
‘More conquest…? Why would you want to go and do a tiresome thing like that…?’ Sloth wondered.
‘The youngest is certainly an ambitious one isn’t he…?’ Thought Envy.
Valerica looked to be annoyed that Darius was once again using a nickname for her, but other than that she did not comment.
If she was honest, she did not expect this turn of events at all, but she knew the dwarf well enough to know that he was often not as crazy as he seemed.
Abaddon remained unflustered in the face of Darius’ accusation and instead posed a question of his own. “What makes you think that I intend to attack you?”
“You’re more like your grandfather than you think. The way that you analyze a potential enemy without missing the slightest detail is almost a carbon copy of him.”
“Is that so…?”
“Ha! I’m just fucking with you!” Darius said as he burst into another fit of laughter.
He continued to cackle as if his joke was the funniest imaginable, until he finally calmed himself down and explained his true thinking.
“Know this, you don’t get to be my age without having good instincts, and mine have been screaming out danger ever sense I first laid eyes on you.”
In either of his lives, Abaddon had never had to deal with someone so exhausting.
The dwarf was so odd and irritating that he should’ve come with his own instruction manual.
Just as he prepared to answer Darius’ accusations, a change finally occurred at the dining table.
It initially began slowly as no more than a light headache.
Abaddon clutched his forehead as he tried to understand why he suddenly felt so strange, and that was when Leviathan and Belphegor went down screaming.
“KYAAA!”
“AAAGGGHHHH!!!”
In the blink of an eye, the parties delightful and soothing mood had been interrupted as everyone turned their attention to the pain stricken demon lords who were writhing on the ground.
“Get back, everyone get back!”
Asmodeus came pushing through the crowd and took a knee next to his sister and brother after he saw that his son was somehow fine.
“Easy now you two, tell me which one of us it was.” Asmodeus asked gently.
Finally, Abaddon realized just what was going on and why he had never experienced this sensation before.
One of the seven demon sins had died, and now the rest were feeling the effects.
But because Abaddon had long evolved his sin into the will of desire, he felt no more than a small headache.
Leviathan looked up at her brother through tear stained eyes as she tried to speak through the immense pain she felt.
“It’s…”