Chapter 534 Back at the Mermen Sea (part 2)
Seeing Daimon's relaxed sleeping face, Aisha smiled and then naturally accommodated him so that his head was resting on her lap, which of course didn't escape the eyes of the other girls.
But at this point the only one who reacted was the newest addition to the group, in other words, Reyne.
"How bold, I guess that's why he changed the color of his hair using that bracelet, is she…", listening to Reyne mumbling, Jasmine giggled as she said.
"Aisha is Daimon's older sister, he dyed his hair black but his original hair color is silver just like Aisha's".
Reyne has seen Daimon's "real" appearance before, with his black hair and all, when she saw that they shared the same eye color, she thought that it was because they belonged to the same race, which only made her feel a bit jealous over how intimate they looked.
Reyne had thought that Daimon was so close to Aisha that he imitated her hair color for his alternative identity, but now that she got to hear that Aisha was his sister, she slightly blushed at the wild thoughts that had passed through her mind earlier.
"Ahem, so miss Aisha is also a vampire like Daimon?", she asked trying to divert attention from her previous obvious reaction.
Unaware of the fact that Daimon's race is to the day a mystery for all the presents, with Aisha's exception of course, that being said, the Risha sisters raised an eyebrow at that comment, because they know the relationship between the four galaxies, and the Immortal galaxy is a sworn enemy of the White Fang galaxy.
Not only that, but Daimon is publicly known as a variant who descends from a member of the Twilight Alluring fox branch of the Revy clan like Erin, and a family that was once the royalty of the Argent clan, as they have changed their leaders many times due to their rule, that anyone can be the king as long as they have the bigger fist, just like Aura did, her parents were just regular members of the family, but she became the Matriarch due to her monstrous strength and also the corruption that had rotted the previous ruling family.
And the Argent family has a blood feud with the vampires, maybe not all of their families, since Aura seems to have some sort of rivalry with the Nosfear Matriarch, but when a vampire and a werewolf meet, usually a bloody battle breaks out, the Revy aren't particularly against the vampires, but they aren't in friendly terms either
Of course, those three also knew that rules don't tend to apply to Daimon, so him being who he is, they wouldn't find it weird if despite that, he was able to get Aura to favor him to the point that she took him as her first disciple, even when she had refused to teach even the most renowned geniuses of her own family.
"It's a bit more complicated than that, you have seen Daimon using both spells and martial arts, not to mention he can basically use all the elements, right?", said Aisha as she caressed Daimon's hair
"Mm", all the girls who were interested in the conversation nodded, it's not a secret at this point that Daimon is both a mage and a knight, but he hasn't spoken that much about his race, on the other hand it's not like they have asked about it.
Also, besides Reyne, the others knew that he had at least two different lineages, his original one and the Black Armored Shark's one, the only thing is that they didn't know he was a vampire, except Reyne since she, Jeanne and Emily felt that strange familiarity towards him.
Curiously, Reyne didn't feel the same regarding Aisha, which means that the origin of that isn't the fact that they are Nelapsi, but probably because they descend from the Ivory and the Brightstar families like Jasmine, though they didn't manifest it like her, the oath which created a bond between Daimon and Jasmine, also applies to them to a certain extent.
"Well, the same applies for bloodlines, there shouldn't be a limit to the number of lineages which Daimon can have", said Aisha which rendered the other girls speechless.
"One would believe that it would be harder to get surprised when such things happen too often, but he always finds a way to keep up", mumbled Mellie.
"Wait, so if we give him our blood, will he be able to obtain the Risha family's bloodline, just like it happened with that Shark something lineage?", enthusiastically asked Leslie only to see Aisha shaking her head.
"There are some requirements that have to be met first, but technically it should be possible", said Aisha as she mentally added.
'After all, he hadn't obtained the Revy nor Argent's bloodlines, despite having drank those four's blood quite a few times, not to mention mine~'.
Just drinking the blood isn't enough for the Apex Predator to integrate a bloodline, that's why there is a function that specializes on that, otherwise it would be too easy and Daimon chose the high difficulty high reward path after all.
"I see…", mumbled Leslie with a somewhat defeated voice, which made the other girls softly laugh, while Reyne was getting more and more interested in Daimon's race, she, her mother and Emily all have blood affinity and while Daimon doesn't seem to have it, he has an ability related to that, that appears to be a thing among vampires, regardless of their race.
It's normal that she feels curious about it, until not too long ago, she didn't even know that Nelapsi are vampires, heck they didn't even know the name of their race but were just lumped together with the Ghouls.
For the next hours the girls kept on asking things to Aisha about Daimon's race, and other random stuff, not to mention asking Jasmine, Sarah and about what happened in Kerrol, as well as asking Reyne about her time living there.
Aisha didn't mind to ask, after everything Daimon has shown about himself to them, there is no use in hiding that he has a vampire lineage, it's not worth mentioning in front of the fact that he is both a mage and a knight anyway, it's just that Daimon isn't particularly talkative about it.
And without noticing quite a few hours passed, since Aurora and the other adults also had a lot of things to discuss, the dinner was served quite late today, almost at midnight, at this point the flying citadel was about to leave the Elemental Sea.
Daimon who felt amazingly refreshed and well rested, noticed the familiar softness and the flower-like scent of Aisha up-close as he opened his eyes, just to be welcomed with the different gazes of the girls that until not too long ago were so immersed in their conversation that they didn't notice how much time had passed.
He chuckled at the sight of the empty packages of snacks here and there.
'Well, at least they seem to have gotten closer than before, but what's up with those interested filled gazes', thought Daimon only to see the crazy girl smiling at him.
"Why didn't you say it when we were sharing a bed, I would have gladly given you my neck~", she said.
Daimon looked upwards at Aisha, just to see her sweetly smiling at him.
'Mom just what did you tell these girls…', wondered Daimon before saying.
"I'm not exactly a vampire at this point, not to mention that traditionally a vampire should only do that with their life partners".
Nowadays, most vampires didn't really put weight to what used to be a sacred ritual between two vampires that loved each other, but Daimon was different, his fangs existed for the pleasure of his girls, not only for the tradition but because getting bitten by him will act as an aphrodisiac for the one who receives it, as long as it is a woman, the contrary applies to female vampires too.
Which is why the few times Aisha had drunk blood, back then not only it was blood from a magic beast instead of a human or another vampire, but it was from a glass, Daimon took another one of her firsts as he was the first person she bit and drank blood directly from.
"I was just about to wake you up, it's time for dinner and those three are joining us since their training had just ended", casually said Aisha with a smile.
Daimon inwardly sighed, this little revenge from Aisha was harmless, besides making the crazy girl discover a new thing she wishes Daimon to do to her, nothing bad came from them knowing about his lineages.
"Let's go then, after that nap I'm quite hungry", said Daimon as he jumped out of the bed, since they were in the citadel, he kept the mask off.
"Sure, we can have a bath together later, since tomorrow is going to be a busy day", said Aisha as she got up from the bed followed by the others, Daimon who was about to leave the room nearly tripped when he heard Aisha announcing out loud that she'll be taking a bath with him, but he managed to recompose himself and ignored the sparkling eyes of the crazy girl, Jasmine and Reyne's slightly blushed faces, as well as Yvonne, Lilia, Leslie and Mellie's unconvinced expressions, the only one who remained calm as usual while still smiling at him was the silent princess Daphne, but her maid and best friend Chris was narrowing her eyes at Daimon, something she had in common with Cassy.
'She is doing it on purpose', thought Daimon as they left to the dining room.
…
As soon as they arrived Daimon was welcomed by the alfear and dwarf princesses, Tessa and Femi, since the cave disappeared and everyone returned to the flying citadel, the girls have been alternating to use the two special training rooms where the elemental conversion array works the best, originally Tessa and Femi's turns would have ended a few minutes after Daimon's return to Neptune.
But the others chose to not enter the training rooms and instead meet Daimon, so Tessa and Femi were given the quotes of the others, that being said there was a limit as to how much mana could a mage absorb in a day and those two reached their limit.
Judging by the fresh floral scent which Daimon caught a wind off, the two princesses left earlier to have a nice bath before joining for the dinner.
"Welcome back", Tessa slightly rose the sides of her dress to greet Daimon like a proper young lady.
"Hey, good to see you, I was starting to think we weren't going to be paid", Femi on the other hand was much more carefree, she was wearing shorts and a top not to mention she was barefooted.
Despite their differences the two were happy to see Daimon and Jasmine were back safely, not to mention they had heard about Reyne, Jeanne and Emily directly from Aurora who wanted to announce to the whole world that not only she gained another granddaughter but her daughter was alive.
"Hi you two, did you manage to feel the difference in the conversion array while inside the training rooms?", said Daimon as he sat at the table, Aisha took the seat at his next while the crazy girl took the one at the left, surprisingly besides looking unconvinced the others didn't say anything and Daimon decided not to ask.
'At least with mom here, she won't try anything', he thought as stole a gaze at Sarah who was all smiles right now.
Just as Aurora was arriving with tray after tray of food, she prepared herself, to celebrate the fact that she gained more family, Daimon saw Marlene who was arriving at the table followed by the two elders, Miriam and Laura and he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her.
She had slight bags under her eyes and looked a bit gloomy not to mention tired, something really strange considering her usual cheerful self, also her realm has regressed from the peak stage Lord realm to the middle stage, but the latter didn't seem to be a problem, her base was solid and there didn't seem to be damage on her mana circuits, so it's probably something she did on purpose instead of some kind of negative effect or something of the like.
"Hi… sorry for the delay, I lost track of the time during my meditation, glad to see you could safely return on time", said Marlene as she slightly smiled at Daimon, Jasmine and Sarah to then seat along with the two elders who gave Daimon apologetic smiles.
Daimon decided to leave that aside for the time being, everyone grabbed what they wanted from the different dishes prepared by Aurora who stood up and poured wine on a glass, to Jasmine's surprise.
She hasn't seen her grandmother drank not even once before ever since she has use of reason, and she wasn't the only one, Bell and Sylvie knew Aurora who used to have a couple of glasses of wine from time to time, stopped when Jessica was born quite some time ago.
"Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I'm really grateful for today", she said as she raised her glass at the others.
"Cheers!", the others accepted her offer, some with real wine others with juice or just water, and then everyone dug in.
Daimon turned to see Aisha who smiled at him as she offered him a piece of the meat she was eating, which he accepted though he was lost in his thoughts for a second.
Ever since the incident from the manticore, the idea of his loved ones, suffering drove him mad, the hatred he felt for the Naktis became the fuel for his wish to become strong, unfortunately things nearly went out of hands but luckily Aisha and the others helped him overcome that lingering concern.
At the four galaxies one of the iron rules of magic is the fact that the dead can't be resurrected, undead can be created using the corpse of a specific person, but the result won't be the same, there will be a new "entity" occupying the body, not to mention that normally there will be physical changes, the original personality will be lost and if one is lucky enough some instincts of the original's owner of the body will remain, those are the top tier undead that can be created artificially, such used to be the case of Horals and Rita.
Now imagine for Neptune where necromancy wasn't known, though she had the hope that some day her daughter returned to her, to be honest never in her wildest dreams Aurora expected it would really happen, so it's normal that she felt overwhelmed.
'Not having control of one's live is truly a terrifying thing', thought Daimon as he took the initiative to personally feed Aisha with his fork, just to see the crazy girl opening her mouth and giving him an expecting gaze.
To everyone's surprise, Sarah herself included, Daimon actually personally fed her, but with her own fork since Aisha was munching on his.
Naturally, the previous resulted in the Risha sisters and Mellie asking for the same, after which the others also participated, including Tessa, Femi and even Cassy and Chris, Joanna also asked for some, but she is a projection so she was ignored.
'I swear she could pass for Sarah's mother', thought Daimon.
Still the previous slightly tense atmosphere had disappeared and now everyone was more relaxed, the young girls weren't really worried since they were lost in their conversation previously, but the adults were, probably because they heard Joanna's story, and not only that but something similar just happened to Aurora.
A person with a light affinity which was completely unrelated to the Light Palace, was needed to try and open the gate of the room where the core of the fortress was sealed, and the person that fulfilled that role for the Shaman was… Sid, in other words the second direct disciple of Aurora was a traitor.
That's how Sylvie was captured, she was attacked by surprise and while she managed to protect herself and not suffer any injury since she was as strong as Sid, Abaris took the chance to imprison her.
Originally Sylvie didn't realize it, until Daimon turned the tables by imprisoning Sid as well as Abaris's female disciple, which turned out to be Sid's lover, the Black Fortress had eyes and ears in the Light Palace, just like back then.
Naturally while Daimon was asleep, Aurora, Sylvie and Bell gave Sid
a piece of their mind, and also took the chance to interrogate him, which confirmed that while Abaris might not have tried to harm Aurora nor Jasmine yet, he had a hidden schedule for sure.
Seeing that everyone had relaxed again, Daimon inwardly nodded, once the global raid ends, he will reunite with all, the presents and the ones who aren't, there was no need for him to say it, instead he will prove it words, that others can't toy with him nor those around him, regardless of who they are.
Speaking of those around him, now that the dinner had ended the girls started to get up and leave, Daimon was going to be the last to bath, so the others went ahead to have their turn.
"You, come with me out for a second", casually said Daimon to Marlene who was taken by surprise, but before she could even show any hesitation, Miriam and Laura pushed her outside of the main residence while they smiled at Daimon.
"I'll be back in a moment", said Daimon to Aisha who nodded at him, she was going to bath with her darling anyway, so in the meantime she could just lay down on the bed while the others finished their bath.
Outside of the main residence, Daimon saw Marlene who was looking at the sky, lost in her thoughts, the two elders had returned to the room they shared.
"Okay, what happened to you, Thea is going to be mad if I "return" you looking like that, you know?", jokingly said Daimon to which Marlene softly laughed.
"Sorry it's just that… Miriam is reaching the end of her lifespan and no matter what I do, I can't return to be at least a damn Arch rank", she said as she slightly clenched her fists with a frustrated expression on her pretty face to then add.
"With the elemental conversion is easy to dissolve a minor realm and recover it without any side effect, so I have been running different ways, simulations but no matter what I can't find the opportunity to advance further than that, I don't know if it is the price to pay for having tricked death before, or if it's the curse placed by that bastard, I can't believe that I will be useless at the moment of truth… again, I even tried using luck I stole from those idiots of the Black Fortress but it didn't work".
She who carried the weight of her race, as the only who had the prowess to make a difference was now "powerless", add to that her mother figure was reaching the end of her lifespan due to that curse, the feeling of not being able to protect was a bitter pill for anyone.
Daimon nodded to then casually say.
"Who said you can't do anything, what will happen in Neptune is only a side effect of the global raid, the real battlefield won't be here, so why don't you come with us instead, aren't you a middle stage Lord rank after all".
"I don't know what is waiting for us there, but I bet there will be rewards given to those who win, if you don't like what the world is doing to you, then fight, even if you have to use your nails and teeth, struggle to the very end, who knows, it might work, it did for me", he added.
Marlene was speechless for a moment, she was so focused on advancing or finding a way to extend Miriam's life, that she overlooked the fact that as a middle stage Lord ranked, she could participate in the global raid, it's not her fault though, she still thought as a Stellar ranked.
She was quite a strong-minded person, that is something that Daimon respected about the angelfish princess, a Stellar rank that dropped all the way to the Lord rank, a lot of people wouldn't be able to overcome the fact that all their hard work, life and death experiences and struggles were rendered useless just like that.
Aisha went through something similar, with the difference that she recovered the years she spent, not to mention she was more than happy to be able to grow together with Daimon, but Marlene's case was different, she remained her previous age, which though wasn't that much a couple of hundreds of years, it was still part of the best period for a mage or knight.
Not to mention her clan already had it hard to advance by default, it was like kicking someone when he is down.
Daimon could see the light in her eyes lighting up once again, to which he nodded.
"Now go take a bath and have a nice rest, I can't have one of my teammates sleeping on me", he said.
Marlene pouted to then cunningly smile as she approached Daimon and hugged him out of nowhere, to then say.
"What kind of man tells a beauty she smells, what kind of love potion did you use to get all those girls to like such a blunt guy".
Daimon chuckled, though she actually didn't take a bath after her meditation, it's not like she smelled or anything, it was more of like she needed one to relax, but he decided to follow her game.
"Well, aren't you hugging me right now, why should I fix it if it seems to be working like a charm", he said making her let go of him with an exaggeratively surprised expression on her face.
"Oh, dear mana, Neptune must be truly coming to an end for you to make a joke~", she said.
Daimon chuckled, only for Marlene to actually hug him once again as she mumbled.
"Thanks… well, I better hurry up to join the others, it's been a while since I had a nice night of sleep so I'll be staying in your room", Marlene stopped hugging him and then she flashed as she left to join the others in the bath.
'Unfortunately, I can't seem to trigger a mission for her directly, maybe something that the Hydra guy's curse did, however by rebound through Thea I got a mission for her before, so if she goes with us to the global raid…', thought Daimon, before shaking his head to then return back inside the main residence, just to see Joanna's projection floating on the living room.
"I'll be staying where those three stay, so thanks for having me~", said Joanna as she flew towards Daimon's room.
'Yeah, she is definitely Sarah's direct ancestor', thought Daimon as he went to his room too, the moment he entered he could feel Aisha's knowing gaze on him, all the others were in the bath, while Joanna was laying down on Jasmine's bed reading some history books to catch up with the modern Neptune.
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