'I was tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled.'
These were the first words of Lith as he woke up from his nap and stared at the phone in his hand.
As per the date, there was still a day left for the grand banquet, meaning he wasn't late.
Then... why was he punished? He couldn't possibly understand.
Smiling and shaking aside these thoughts, Lith focused on the upcoming things.
The grand banquet was around the corner and although it had the word grand attached to it, it was just another banquet on the same scale as Lucy's coronation.
There was nothing new about it and these were just formalities he had to follow for being a Royal.
His mother had mentioned that she would be introducing him properly to the world. That was an excuse. The real reason was that she wanted to flaunt him.
Lith wouldn't have a lot of time to interact with people in the banquet as he was the main star of the event.
Getting up from his bed and stretching, he organized his thoughts on the things needed to be dealt with before the banquet began.
Calling Luna and getting into a new set of casual clothes, Lith walked out of his room and started meeting the people he had work with.
.....
The Royal Servants were busy with the banquet preparation and couldn't be mobilized for his work. At best he could use a few and Lith did just that.
He had a chat with Lark and Kyonumarru on the things they had to do at the banquet, then left the castle to see some more people.
The very first person outside the castle he met was Hecate, the Queen Witch with red and blue eyes. It was a brief meeting and she left shortly after Lith was done explaining the things.
Next, Lith sent a message to Yuwen, the guy responsible for taking over the World Merchant Association, and had him do a few things.
Lith then checked up on the Jingmei Guild that was supposed to take in new adventurer's from the hidden dungeon while travelling to the Dragon Continent.
He checked on the guys from Neutral Continent over the phone through a person called Lady Hei.
Lady Hei was the person who gave Lith some trouble, but then switched sides knowing he became an enemy of her enemy.
She was a good person who worked for the welfare of the guild and in these eight decades, she had worked hard enough to become the third in command of the guild.
The guild's power was rising too as they were becoming stronger and getting more powerful adventurers.
With the addition of a few people from the World Adventurer's Association, their ranking shot up further.
This was a good thing. They were one of the key players for the upcoming things Lith was planning.
He put his phone back in his pocket when he was done talking. Using a teleportation token, Lith disappeared from his spot and appeared right inside the mighty Death Dragon's castle.
The spot where he appeared ended up notifying the people in the castle and in just a few seconds, some staff members came and guided Lith to a room.
As Lith walked into a luxurious room, he saw his wife facing in his direction with a smile.
Her bluish-silver hair flowed freely and her beautiful eyes were hidden by a black blindfold, the same as usual.
"Are you missing your wife already, dear husband?"
Arya teased with a smile.
Lith smiled back and didn't reply to her teasing. If he did, he would be stuck in fooling around with his lovely wife, which he wanted to avoid for now.
Lith walked close to Arya and gave her a light hug and kiss on the forehead.
"Have you been good?" Lith asked before proceeding to the main topic.
No matter what business he had, knowing his wife's health took more priority.
In the birthday celebrations he didn't get much time to ask about it.
"I've been good. What can happen to me anyway? Have a seat." Arya gestured to Lith to sit.
Lith sat on a chair opposite to hers and the two talked husband-wife things for a few minutes.
"So, what brings you here, dear?" Arya asked with a faint smile.
Before answering her question, Lith stared at her with his calm eyes and asked, "my dear, do you like... war?"
"Depends." Arya said vaguely. "If it's a war for something I find pointless, I don't like it."
"I see." Lith nodded. "Then, will you find it pointless if the whole world is in chaos?"
"Hmm?" An interested look appeared on Arya's face.
Lith smiled and leaning forwards, continued, "the whole world will soon break into a major war. Something along the magnitude of the chaotic era."
Arya's eyebrows quivered in interest. This was the first time she had seen her husband sound so serious about something.
The serious atmosphere he suddenly created, she couldn't help but get up and get behind him.n).O/-v.-e.)1/)B/(I--n
Hugging him from behind, Arya softly asked, "what is my dear husband trying to achieve?"
If something on the magnitude of the chaotic era occurred, this world would turn into an apocalyptic nightmare.
Everything would be destroyed and become desolate, making history repeat itself.
Arya wasn't against this, but she wanted to know why Lith wanted something like this.
If all things were destroyed, there won't be many honeymoon spots available for them.
From Emmy, she was told how good her honeymoon was and how much she learnt there.
Arya was awaiting her own as well. She didn't want the world to be destroyed before she went on a honeymoon.
Unaware of his wife's thoughts, Lith answered, "there's otherworldly big shots that'll make an appearance sooner or later. I want the whole world to be prepared and counter them. The current era is too peaceful, everyone's too rusty."
"Ah..." Understanding the reasons, Arya chuckled.
She rubbed her cheek on Lith's and continued, "with me here, there's no one who can threaten you. Why bother?"
For sure Lith could hide from the attackers and even have his wives defend him. But, he didn't want it. That was too cowardly.
He had plans to inflict such great pains on his enemies that not just them, their whole ancestry should tremble from a mere name of his.
It wouldn't happen if he stayed dormant and just indulged in debauchery.
Lightly tapping on Arya's face, Lith answered, "of course that can happen. But that's no fun."
Arya chuckled. "I thought so."
She then sat on Lith's lap and asked, "then... what do you want me to do?"
Lith smiled. "Well..."
.
.
.
.
.
"Damn, shameless husband!" Arya exclaimed and got up from Lith's lap.
"You want your poor, helpless, and weak wife to work this much?"
Lith nodded. "That's right. You're the only one who can do it. Who asked you to have so many connections and power and then become my wife?"
As shameless as ever, Lith was making full use of his wife's background.
She commanded one-third of the dragons, the entirety of the underworld was in her grasp, and not to mention, she was filthy rich.
So rich that she could probably buy out an entire continent or something.
Arya playfully spat out imaginary spit and said, "I refuse. If you want to break my back, do it in the bedroom, and not by making me work so much."
Lith spread out his hands and continued, "wifey, imagine the things you'll get in return."
"Oh... and what is that?"
"Wealth, power, status, duh. You'll become super mighty."
"Blergh." Arya stuck out her tongue and fell freely in Lith's embrace.
She extended her hands out and holding Lith's face, said softly, "I already have the greatest wealth here with me. Give me a better reason."
Man...
His wife's sweet lines were making him blush now.
Doing a light cough to hide his blushing face, Lith said, "I have nothing to offer then... sorry..."
Arya chuckled. She played with Lith's long hair and said, "how about this, then? You give me your love, I'll give you my everything, okay?"
Lith rolled his eyes and pinched Arya's nose. "Cheeky woman, don't you already have it? I can't give you something that I've already given you."
Arya giggled. "Alright, alright. On a serious note, whatever things you mentioned, it'll take quite some time to progress. Are you fine with it?"
Lith nodded. "People can't be made to attack each other without a solid reason. No one's gonna take things seriously if we just ask them to fight each other meaninglessly."
"That's true. But there would be so much destruction of life and property. What about that?"
"Don't worry, that can be dealt with properly later." Lith assured her.
"Hmm, then... I'll initiate the plans after the Grand Banquet."
Lith smiled. His wife was really very understanding. He bent down to kiss her lips softly and said, "I love you."
Arya chuckled again. "I am glad you said that instead of 'thank you'. I would've beaten you up had you said thank you to me."
Lith smiled awkwardly. He knew saying thank you in a loving relationship was offensive to his wives. They had strictly warned him to not say it.
The two then chatted for a bit more and Lith left the Death Dragon Empress' Castle to prepare for tomorrow's Grand Banquet.