The atmosphere in the Gremory estate was heavy and depressing, like your fat ex-girlfriend.
Maids and butlers moved through the halls with exaggerated caution, each of their movements prudent, terrified of doing anything that might provoke their masters' wrath.
They did not dare whisper among themselves. The scandal that had erupted that night was astonishing, even to put it mildly. Any servant caught exchanging so much as a single word about it had been dismissed on the spot.
"My lord, unfortunately, we have found no clues whatsoever," Sirzechs's knight, Souji Okita, observed his master's face while speaking. Sirzechs's face was abnormally calm. His eyes carried a piercing, indifferent look, as if he had not received a devastating blow less than a week ago, losing his wife, mother, and brother-in-law.
But Souji Okita knew better. Precisely because Sirzechs displayed no outward emotion, the knight understood that a ferocious rage must be consuming him from within. An active volcano was being forcibly contained inside that composed exterior, and when it finally erupted, no one could predict the scale of the destruction that would follow.
"Keep searching. Focus most of the manpower on the Underworld," Sirzechs showed no surprise as he issued the order and dismissed Souji Okita. From the lingering clues Grayfia had left while preparing her plans, Sirzechs, who had been her husband for hundreds of years, deduced that the possibility of her hiding in the Underworld was higher than anywhere else.
"As you wish, my lord!" Souji Okita bowed and turned around to take his leave. Among Sirzechs's peerage, he was the calmest and most composed person after Grayfia. He was also the only one who did not fear an angry Grayfia, a presence that terrified everyone, including Sirzechs himself.
Even though he was sad and bewildered by Grayfia's actions, he did not show it outwardly so as not to provoke his master further, which made him the temporary vice leader of the peerage for now.
Watching him leave, Sirzechs let out a heavy sigh. He strode to the French window and stared at the endlessly stretching garden below, where hurried servants tended to the grounds. For the first time, his indifferent face cracked as he muttered tiredly, "Why did things turn out like this?"
For once in a long time, everything had been going at least somewhat smoothly. The talks with Azazel and Michael had reached a critical point, and they had even agreed to sign a peace treaty to end the conflict between the three factions. His sister's problematic engagement was settled, and she had even found someone she genuinely loved.
Yusuke was easy to get along with. He had great talent and no political affiliation with any other faction. Sirzechs liked him quite a bit and had even grown fond of him.
But... how did everything change in a single goddamned night?! One night, he was having a good chat with him. The next day, his wife had actually kidnapped Yusuke!
His sister said that Grayfia was in love with Yusuke and decided to kidnap him to monopolize his love!
To top it off, his own mother seemed to have some strange feelings for him as well!
"Yusuke Aoki... why... why?" His teeth ground together with such force that several cracked audibly, sharp pain lancing through his jaw. A thin trickle of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth and slid down his chin.
Even though he knew it was not Yusuke's fault, that it was Grayfia's fault for nurturing forbidden feelings toward her own brother-in-law, no normal man could remain rational and not feel resentment toward the man his own wife had fallen in love with!
Crack!
The quiet sound of the door opening snapped him back to the present. He straightened instinctively as his father's voice, calm and gentle as ever, drifted into the room. "Sirzechs, don't push yourself too hard."
Sirzechs exhaled through his nose. He placed a hand over his forehead, covering his eyes, as he asked his father, "Father, I know. I really do. But how can a man remain calm in this kind of situation?"
He lowered his hand to meet his father's gaze. "How do you do it? How can you remain so composed even after Mother left you?"
"She even called you a monkey."
'It's because I have a harem, motherfucker! And I'm scared shitless of her. You have no idea how hard it is to live with a woman countless times stronger than you, who can beat your ass whenever she feels like it.' That was what Zeoticus wanted to say, but there was absolutely no way he ever would.
He approached his son, the child he was most proud of, and patted his shoulder. "One day, when the time comes, you will understand."
'...' Sirzechs pondered over his father's words. What did he mean? Did he have to live through more cuckolding experiences to understand?!
"I know that it must be hard for you to accept this now, but instead of wallowing in negative feelings, you must not forget that there is someone who is affected just as much as you," Zeoticus said as he handed him a tissue to wipe the blood from his chin. He turned to leave, pausing only to add one last sentence. "Your son has not heard from his parents for days. You should visit him. He is the biggest victim in this matter."
Millicas was still in the dark about his mother's actions. Zeoticus forbade everyone who knew about the matter from talking, precisely because he did not want Millicas to learn the truth.
Over the past days, Zeoticus had stayed with him, accompanying his grandson.
"...Yes, father," Sirzechs's expression improved somewhat as he gave his father's back a grateful look. He turned to stare through the window, slapped his face with both hands, and forced a smile before jumping out.
"Millicas, did you miss me?" He barged through the window three stories below, his cheerful voice echoing through the room.
Even though he was burning with rage, he could not allow himself to show that ugly side to his beloved son.
...
With a sudden flash of light, Grayfia's figure emerged in the room. The moment she appeared, her gaze locked straight on the sleeping face of Yusuke.
He was still lying on the bed, in the same position she had left him in, wearing a peaceful and relaxed expression.
A faint smile appeared on her face as she rushed to his side, sitting on the bed. However, in the next instant, her expression turned cold. Her nose twitched several times faintly as she picked up a very faint scent.
It was the smell of another woman.
Despite Yusuke asking Sona to use cleansing magic on him over ten times to remove the lingering scent from the women who had been clinging to him and making out with him, it seemed that Grayfia's yandere nose had still managed to pick up something.
A yandere's ability to detect the scent of a rival woman surpassed even the shameless skill of politicians who could spout the most blatant lies with perfectly straight faces.
'Could it be my imagination?' Grayfia's nose twitched a few more times. The scent was extremely faint, giving her the illusion that it might simply be her imagination. However, this matter concerned her baby boy.
Without a sound, she slipped off the bed. Her movements were fluid and silent, careful not to disturb even the sheets around him. She cast one last lingering glance at his peaceful sleeping face, then turned and left the room.
She moved swiftly through the corridors until she reached a remote room. There, she pressed a concealed switch set into the wall. A section of the stone slid aside without, revealing a hidden door. Grayfia stepped inside.
The chamber beyond was lit only by the blue glow of dozens of screens that covered every wall from floor to ceiling. At the center of the room, suspended in midair, floated a fist-sized golden orb, rotating slowly.
This was the monitoring room. It monitored the entirety of this place, the outside, and even locations far away, wherever it was set to observe.
Grayfia rewound the time to the moment she had left and played it back at high speed, watching the recording calmly. As the footage played, her cold expression slowly melted into a gentle, light smile. Her Yusuke had been asleep the entire time. He did not move, and no one entered this place either.
'I am such a bad woman! To suspect my baby boy's pure love even for a second. I need to be punished~!' Grayfia held her face with both hands as she thought this, her eyes overflowing with endless love and obsession. She impatiently left the monitoring room and rushed back to Yusuke.
[It's a smart move that you didn't run away from Grayfia.] At the same time, on the bed, B2 spoke to Yusuke, who was pretending to be asleep.
Given Grayfia's aggressive personality, if she were to return and not find Yusuke, she would think of two possibilities. Either he ran away, or someone took him.
Once she confirmed that he ran away, her submission would fall extremely low, perhaps even into the negative. She would understand that everything Yusuke did, all the love they shared, was nothing but a lie.
She would do everything in her power to find him again and kidnap him this time. She would certainly break his mind or turn him into a human stick, keeping him forever by her side.
'Yeah, I know,' Yusuke agreed with B2. The same trick he pulled with other girls would not work here. With Grayfia, even if he were to be kidnapped, her submission would not rise. During this period, he showed that he loved only her. He never tried to reason with her or propose the idea of a harem.
Additionally, Grayfia was far stronger and more experienced than all the other women combined. Even if Yusuke were to be kidnapped, she would feel sad and panicked, but she would also remain confident, firmly believing that she could find him and save him. The idea of forever losing him would not cross her mind.
"Sleepy head, wake up." With his eyes closed, Yusuke sensed Grayfia's rough breathing over his face. Her lips touched his, kissing him. It was a light kiss that slowly turned into a deep French kiss.
Yusuke's eyes opened, meeting her crimson ones. He pulled back, breaking the kiss. "Good morning, Mommy."
She always woke him with a kiss whenever she cast her sleeping spell on him.
"Hmm~! Good morning," Grayfia said as she touched his face. She pulled him up and helped him put on his clothes, then dragged him to the living room where she had prepared breakfast for him.
She treated him like a small, powerless child who could not live without her at all. She patiently fed him, sometimes using chopsticks, sometimes feeding him mouth-to-mouth.
When Yusuke finished breakfast, Grayfia prepared his favorite morning coffee and sat on his lap, snuggling against him.
The two of them did not speak. They simply held each other as Yusuke sipped his coffee slowly.
Grayfia did not need to talk to feel his love. She could hear his heart beating her name. This lingering moment of peace was more satisfying to her than all her life's achievements.
By observing and conditioning Yusuke over these past days, she learned that he liked to drink his morning coffee in peace and did not like to talk during that time.
When Yusuke finally set the empty cup down, Grayfia rose from his lap. She carried the cup to a nearby shelf lined with identical cups, each one meticulously labeled. With a magical pen, she wrote the date on this one, then pressed a lingering kiss to its rim before placing it beside the others.
Every item Yusuke touched became a sacred relic in her eyes. They were priceless, irreplaceable, meant to be preserved perfectly and forever.
"Baby boy, do you want your morning massage?" Grayfia asked, swaying her hips as she walked back to him, smiling seductively.
"Yes, Mommy," Yusuke replied as he lay down on the sofa.
[Good boy.]
"Good boy," B2 and Grayfia spoke at the same time. Of course, the former was being sarcastic.
Suddenly, just as Grayfia's hands were a few inches away from her baby boy's perfect body, about to start her massage and inevitably end up fucking him, her expression changed.
Without hesitation, she cast a sleeping spell on him, putting Yusuke to sleep. Right away, she ran to the monitoring room. There, on one of the screens, she saw the figures of four women. Venelana, Rias, Ravel, Eleonora.
...
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