Chapter 432 Mateo’s First Training Montage!
Mateo's weapon of choice was a black and red macuhuital with the blades resembling bony protrusions instead of stones.
Even though his new muscles were screaming out for him to remain inactive, he gritted his teeth and picked up his weapon anyway.
"This… isn't as cool as I thought it was going to be, gordito!"
Abaddon rolled his eyes as he twirled his own weapon in his grasp.
"It's hard work, yes, but you need to know how to defend yourself until I come back. I don't want you to just count on always being the strongest one in the room."
"I get it…" Mateo said with a sigh. "But just out of curiosity, how strong did you make me exactly?"
"…"
"..?"
"Raise your weapon, we're going again."
"E-Eh?!"
Leaning against the backyard gates were Bekka and Seras, both of whom had been called to help with different areas of Mateo's instruction but simply hadn't gotten the chance yet.
Abaddon was passively pushing Mateo a bit further than he normally would have because now he was looking at him as a potential in-law.
The qualifications to do that versus being just a run of the mill friend were drastically different.
"Husband! There are only a few more minutes before Lailah gets her turn again. Do you want to let one of us work with him now??" Seras asked in annoyance.
Abaddon stopped on a dime and caught Mateo's weapon with only his bare hand.
"Oh come on!"
Abaddon looked over his shoulder at his two wives who were growing impatient and he let out a sigh as he relented.
"Alright, loves. Which one of you wants to take my pla-"
In a gust of wind, Seras appeared right beside her husband and excitedly snatched his weapon away before giving him a small kiss on the cheek.
"I've kept you waiting too long it seems." He laughed.
"You have, but like the good wife I am, I'm going to forgive you."
"Lucky me."
Mateo's eyes took on a droll light as he felt like he had just been forced to eat dog food.
Seeing literal dragons act all lovey dovey with each other and being in a perfectly committed relationship was a new level of strangeness that he didn't think he would ever experience in his life.
It was also a painful reminder of his lifelong cling to virginity that he had already given up hope of losing.
"I don't think I can do this, gordito." He said with a sigh.
"Hm?"
Mateo gestured to Seras in as respectful a manner as possible.
"I could not swing my sword at a woman. It just goes against my principles! Since she is your wife, should you not be more concerned about her being hurt or… why are you looking at me like that?"
Mateo was completely unaware of the monumental mistake that he had just made.
For the first time ever, he saw Abaddon's eyes go wide with fear and even a small look of pity.
He did not understand exactly why this was happening until he looked at Seras a second time.
Her one of a kind and beautiful face was twitching slightly, and he could see her fangs starting to poke out from beyond her lips.
"Because… I'm a woman you say..?"
"My love, you must remember that he was born on earth and their views on certain things are-"
When Seras placed a slender finger on Abaddon's lips to stop him from talking, he knew that she was already too far gone to be reasoned with.
'You poor stupid soul..'
Mateo finally seemed to recognize that something was wrong as he took very small steps backwards.
Unfortunately, for every one that he took, Seras took two forward.
"Since you actually dared to belittle my capability as a warrior, don't blame me if I have to assert myself just a little bit, hm?"
-
Lailah and the rest of the wives were still inside the house, listening to Eris play the grand piano within one of Raphael's many rooms.
As a goddess of song, she displayed a rare talent for playing instruments that surpassed even Lailah's.
Her piece was so beautiful that it captivated the full admiration of everyone in the room and left them desperately hoping that the song would never end.
When the final key was played, tears fell from the eyes of all the girls as they drowned Eris in applause.
"Y-You were so amazing!"
"I love you even more now!"
"I've never heard anything so beautiful!"
Always the one to feel a bit shy, Eris blushed silently as she twirled her fingers.
"Honestly now, you all are being so over dramatic… it was just something that I threw together."
"No, it was really amazing!"
"Can we get an encore for the babies?" Tatiana asked as she patted her and Valerie's bulging stomachs.
"Well.. if you promise not to embarrass me again then I don't mind."
"No promises!" They all said aloud.
Eris smiled wryly as if she'd already expected that to some degree, and flexed her fingers over the piano keyboards anyway.
Just before she could start playing, there was a loud explosion in the room Mateo came flying in from the north facing wall.
He landed right on top of the priceless 200 year old piano, completely crushing it and breaking the hearts of all of the girls inside.
"NO!"
They immediately ran towards the new opening in the wall and glared at a sheepish Seras who was now hiding behind Abaddon.
"Seras!!"
"You made him destroy this beautiful piano!"
"Eris was playing us the most wonderful song ever but you brutalized it!"
Meekly, Seras chirped up from behind Abaddon while displaying none of her former ferocity.
"W-Well Valerie can just fix it, right..?"
Evidently, it seemed as though the girls had all forgotten about that little fact as they all turned to stare at their favorite butterfly winged mother with a bit of an incredulous look.
"T-That's not the point!"
"She's pregnant! We shouldn't be making her do extra work!"
"You have to be a bit more thoughtful, sister!"
While Seras was getting chewed out by the rest of her family, Mateo was struggling to get his bearings due to the foot sized hole in his chest.
He had thought that training with Abaddon was scary, but Seras was an entirely different beast.
He was so certain that he was going to die that he saw his abuela waving at him from beyond the pearly gates.
'This family is insane.. sure they are all beautiful, but they are absolutely insane too!'
As Mateo waited for his new body to fully heal, Lailah suddenly hovered above him with a strange smile that terrified him to his core.
"I hope you've rested properly, Mateo. You remember everything from our last lesson, correct?"
"Y-Yes ma'am.."
"Wonderful! Now we can skip right to the next unit : Magic Circuitry and Physical Mana Manifestation!"
"Y-Yay…"
"Oh? You don't sound very excited." Lailah said disappointedly.
"My kidneys are lying outside of my back.."
Lailah seemed to recognize that learning while practically crippled would have been difficult, so she finally relented from their intensive schedule a bit.
"Alright then, Mateo. We will pick this back up after you have rested for a little while."
Sparkling lights of pure hope shone in Mateo's eyes as he finally felt a bit of light shine down on his bleak surroundings.
"R-Really?? How long do I get to rest??"
"For five whole minutes!"
"Oh… I see."
"If you aren't grateful then we can always-"
"N-No, I am grateful! I promise! I promise!"
- 6 Hours Later.
Mateo sat cross legged on the ground in a state of deep concentration.
Surrounding his body was a dense violet aura of pure magic that gave off a relatively calming feeling despite its ominous looking nature.
This would have been a much easier task to complete were it not for…
*Smack!*
*Smack!*
*Smack!*
Lailah was continuously slapping Mateo in the face at random intervals as a way to hone his concentration and control.
To add to the difficulty of this learning exercise, she was also having Mateo multitask by engaging in a steady stream of conversation with her.
Every time that he faltered or couldn't think of something else to talk about, Lailah would smack him hard enough to knock out a row of teeth as punishment.
"You all seem to have a great relationship. I'm curious to know your secret."
*Smack!*
"Our secret, huh? I can't really say that we have something like that."
*Smack!*
"That seems hard to believe. I mean nine women married to one man? And you're all so close. I could almost think that you all are in one relationship."
*Smack!*
"It's almost like that but I guess you could say that it's different too? Ultimately our love for him is what binds us all together and makes us love each other so."
*Smack!*
"How so?"
*Smack!*
"Well, if he weren't around, I am not sure what would become of us. Abaddon is the one who keeps us all sane, patient, and forgiving.
We have disagreements sometimes, but eventually we realize that we are tied together for eternity, so why would we waste time fighting, when it could be better served in understanding?"
*Smack!*
"Wow… I think listening to all of that has made me realize that I may not be as ready for a relationship as I thought. I don't think I'm that mature yet."
*Smack!*
"Well.. I have found that the great thing about love is that you don't have to be. You just have to be willing to grow. Everything else… it just comes naturally."
*Smack!*
"I see…"
Mateo fell silent, but Lailah did not penalize him for it this time as she could tell that he was thinking about something very hard.
Whatever it may have been, it didn't seem like he was going to share it with her, and instead he asked an entirely different question.
"So, is it just the nine of you then? Abaddon doesn't have anymore pursuits back in… Sheol, was it?"
"He most certainly does not. We all like where we are now and what we have. We don't really want to expand and he is not so disloyal as to chase after whatever woman walked into his line of sight."
"Aww, that's swee-"
"Besides, we would kill him if he ever tried something like that anyway."
"Ah, never mind."
Lailah chuckled before her golden eyes took on a calm, and far away look.
"Although there is one who is not… terrible. But she has much to overcome with him… with all of us."
Just before Mateo could ask for details, his new senses started to go haywire.
Evidently Lailah sensed it too, as she smiled sinisterly and finally stoppped abusing the new vampire king.
"What great timing. I was just thinking that it's about time for you to put your new power to the test. It seems like a few good men have volunteered to help."
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