~ Chapter 159: A witness to her tears ~

[Illsyore’s point of view]

The Supremes who stepped up to challenge me were weak and lacked the skills needed to entertain me even for a couple of seconds. The three draconians who refused to fight me turned against the Royal Guards and the other Supremes, helping me restrain all of them in no time at all.

This gave me the freedom to head up and witness Ayuseya’s battle.

Once I got up there, however, instead of looking at her majestic forms as she pulverized her enemy in one single merciless attack, what I saw was a crying dragoness who held back a lot in a painful attempt to avoid killing her foe. Normally, Ayuseya would not have had any trouble to kill a scum like that, however, considering what was revealed so far and everything she was going through, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had other thoughts plaguing her mind.

Unfortunately, I could not tell what was bothering her, what kept her from fiercely fighting against him with all she had. The speed of her flight was no different than that of a hawk heading out on a hunt. The power of her strikes felt as though they were released with her full intent to kill, but most of them did not break the sound barrier, which showed just how much she was holding back. Then there were the tears that flowed down her cheeks.

What Draconius told her back in the throne room as well as what he was shouting at her out here were words that stabbed deep in her heart. Once again, Ayuseya was confronting herself with the rejection of her family. If she was also feeling down because she wasn’t able to stop him from activating that curse, or because she didn’t act in a different manner to save the draconians in that ‘farm’ below, I could see how this could affect her performance in this battle.

When it came down to everything, Ayuseya was facing the progenitor of her family, the oldest member alive and at the same time the one draconian which people either viewed as a hero or as a monster. What went on through her heart and what went on through her mind had to be something difficult and painful for her.

For me, killing this Draconius fellow was no different than swatting a fly. I didn’t care if I killed him, especially since he killed all those draconians in that dungeon below. Shanteya wouldn’t have even bothered to wait for him to send out an invitation. Once she made up her mind to change the sovereign of this nation, she would have sneaked up behind him and slit his throat in his sleep before he even had the chance to realize what was happening. On the same note, Nanya would have just jumped in and pummeled him with her fists, sparing no second to hear his words. Zoreya wouldn’t have moved unless she got the permission from her god no matter how much her heart was in a raging turmoil, which was something I appreciated and admired about her, but once she was given the freedom to do as she pleased, there was no stopping her. As for Tamara, to be honest, even now I had no idea how she would react. She was the biggest mystery out of all of my wives despite her rather happy-go-lucky attitude and silly behavior.

Indeed, all of us would have reacted in our own unique and different ways, but none of us would have shed tears of regret and fear when faced with this enemy.

To be rejected by your own family... sacrificed by your own mother... She probably held this pain in her heart ever since she read that letter back on Fellyore. She was raised with the idea that she was loved and protected, when in fact it was all a ploy... a big theatrical show in which she never knew she played as the main actress. I thought as I saw her lash out at him with strikes that screamed a single word: Why?

Why did she have to be a sacrifice?

Why did she have to be that blind actor in her own play?

Why did she have to be the trigger to kill her own family?

Why was she forced now to kill her elder?

These were the questions that made me empathize with her pain, but even so, I couldn’t grasp the true depth of this black chasm.

In the end, with one last effort, she squeezed the very life out of Draconius, his remains splattering all over her hand in one macabre explosion. Then, she let her voice be heard by all those who were woken up by the sounds of the battle. The change of the ruler and the instauration of Queen Vellezya was set up as a monumental decision, one that would change the fate of Teslov, hopefully, for the better.

Back in the throne room, the Supremes who chose not to fight against me were looking up at Ayuseya with an expression that held both expectation and dread. None of them had any idea how Teslov was going to look in the following years, how the nobles were going to react, or how the commoners were going to take this news. What they knew, however, was that Ayuseya had the blood of dragons flowing through her veins as well as that of the Pleyades. By right, she was the epitome what they saw as the absolute chosen ruler, yet she gave away this honor to her sister.

“You’ve done well...” I said in a small whisper before I flew up to her.

Once Ayuseya returned to her draconian form, we flew back to the throne room. She was holding my hand and leaning against me almost as if she was afraid that her knees would give in and fall to the ground. Although the strength in her eyes seemed to be unmatched, she still had the traces of tears that washed down on her cheeks.

She gave a few simple orders to those present here. The first one was to toss all the guards and Supremes who went up against her into the dungeons. The same was to be done with any noisy nobles that came to complain that day. For now, she simply didn’t want to listen to any of them.

Since the security wasn’t all that great here, I summoned several minotaurs that were level 1500 and ordered them to stand guard at Vellezya’s room as well as the entrance to the palace. So as to not cause any panic, I also added a small sign on each of their necks, which said in Teslovian: Temporary Guard. Attack it and you die. Current monarch: Queen Vellezya + Regent Ayuseya.

For most of them, this was more than enough. We then headed over to Vellezya’s room, where Ayuseya took the opportunity to heal her shattered heart together with her sister and our little nephew. Currently, these three were the only survivors of the Pleyades family, but out of them, only two mattered for Teslov.

When we reached her room, I was half expecting Ayuseya to talk about the things Draconius told her, but instead she merely exchanged thoughts and opinions on various silly and casual matters. She mentioned no word about how she made Vellezya the acting Queen or the dungeon that now held the remains of the Pleyades family.

About that, Ayuseya told me only one thing: “Absorb their remains and erase that place for good...” and so I did.

Later that night, I held her in my arms and listened to her sob, but she didn’t say a single word about what she was feeling or what she went through during that fight. One thing was certain and that was the fact that not even she was expecting to react like this, to be brought down by so many tumultuous emotions that washed over her the moment she understood that peaceful negotiations were out the window.

All I did that night was simply be there for her. Ayuseya was a strong woman, but in these moments of weakness, when her emotions overwhelmed her, when the pain of her actions stabbed at her heart, I would make sure to be there to hold her in my arms, to listen to her and support her.

Back in Romania, I was often told that as a man, I had to be the support of the family. I had to be the one to take the brunt of all outside attacks, however, ever since coming to this world, I learned to trust in the strength of my life partners. I wasn’t alone on this journey, but they weren’t either. When I was down, they were there to support me, and when they were the ones down, I was going to be there to support them. We were all one big team with equal rights and our individual strengths and weaknesses. Taking on everything on my shoulders just because I was a man or because that was tradition was nothing but a fool’s errand, a suicidal mission... As they said, there was no I in team.

The following day, Ayuseya was back to her old self as if nothing happened. From early in the morning, she already began to work on a plan to fix Teslov over the course of at least ten years, while also creating a strong and unbreakable relationship with Illsyorea and the Paramanium Empire. She sent out several messages towards the emperor before lunch and then we focused on reorganizing the Palace.

I was left with guard duty, builder duty, and at times babysitting duty. Although I didn’t mind, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for everyone else who ended up as my wife’s reforming target. Those Supremes were among those unfortunate casualties.

Thus, the upcoming three days, Ayuseya sorted out the guards in the Palace and restructured several laws which focused on civil order and international relationships. A lot of nobles didn’t agree with these new decrees, which were all signed by Vellezya as well, and so they decided to start a coup against us. What awaited them were several overworked Supremes who were just promised a few hours of sleep if they beat those armies black and blue.

It was a massacre...

With Draconius gone, the draconians in the Council of Elders lost their will to fight back against us and surrendered once I went to pick them up. One of them tried to attack me, but with one slap, I already sent him flying back to the Palace to have him sign his resignation.

Although they suffered through a reformation process led by Ayuseya, all of the Supremes who chose to lay down their weapons back then had been appointed now as Vellezya’s trusted guards. Meanwhile I decided to give her a small helping hand by offering her some Magic Energy infusions, similar to the type I used on my kids. Thanks to that, her initial level of 16 was now at a steady 56. For the first time in her life, she could feel the same power as other draconians did when Magic Energy flowed through their bodies to form a spell or activate a skill. Vellezya was so moved by this that she shed tears of joy.

“I finally have a chance at being a normal draconian woman...” she said at that time.

From the three Supremes that visited Illsyorea back then, Ayuseya appointed Brakhian as Vellezya’s personal guard, while Varidan and Ashavar were going through what I would call Hell. She dragged them out by their tails and made them study all sort of political stuff in order to take on the role of a temporary Adviser and Prime Minister while she was gone. The poor fellows had to cram everything in their noggins that was even remotely related to the politics of Teslov. Once she was done with them, she was going to get Brakhian to become a Military Adviser. He was saved for the last, and I could only pity him when he was smiling happily to have escaped my wife’s grasp.

One time, those two managed to escape her ‘gentle training session with fireballs and lightning strikes’ and came running to Brakhian for help. When they started begging us to save them, the two of us began to make them a pair of pretty coffins matching their scale color. We also made matching funeral stones as well, and we even held a nice ceremony for the departure of their souls because once Ayuseya found them, not even the Devil himself would have dared to stop her.

Jokes aside, there were several attempts of a coup from a bunch of nobles who knew not better. Once we destroyed their mercenary army, razed their homes to the ground, ripped the hair out of their heads, and tossed them in the streets with nothing but their clothes on their back, things started to settle down.

A few merchants approached Ayuseya about the recent change in governing, but they all left with a big smile on their faces. A reduced tax for import and export as well as no tax for trading with Illsyorea, just these two alone were more than enough to bring them tears of joy.

One of the first things Ayuseya did on the second day after the big battle was to teach Vellezya whom she could trust and whom to send messages to when she would need help. In order to keep her safe, I also replaced half of the Royal Guards with my personal boot-loving Imps that were level 1000. They acted like a proper army, but unlike those on Illsyorea, they were just a temporary force.

On the fourth day, however, I received the second alert from my wives. This time, the sender was Shanteya. When I saw it, I could not help but gulp in worry.

“Go. I’m going to need to stay here for at least another week anyway. The representative of the Paramanium Empire will be here in a couple of days, but once I’m done, I’ll head back to Illsyorea... This time, I’ll fly on my own.” she showed me a soft smile.

I felt relieved knowing that she wasn’t willing to hide her strength anymore. To be honest, that was a big stone on my heart as it would make me worry for her safety. Politics made everything complicated, but once they were on our side, we could go crazy and show everyone why it wasn’t such a great idea to mess around with a Deus!

Still, I could not help but wonder as to why was Shanteya calling me?

“I wonder what could have happened to her?” I said as I flew up in the air.

After stopping at a good altitude, I took out the fighting jet from my Inner Mind and then boarded it.

With one powerful boost of Magic Energy, the howl of the metal machine was activated, and I flew towards my El’doraw wife.