~ Chapter 87: Six years... ~

[Illsyore's point of view]

“Ah~! The ocean! So beautiful and filled with resources! So many things to explore within its depths and so many wonders to discover from ages long forgotten!”

These words flowed from my mouth like the lines from a well critiqued script of a drama play. The only things I have not done were the exaggerated body movements because of... reasons.

“Shut up and paddle faster!” growled Nanya at me.

Alas, the critics of this world were harsh when it came to the beauty of the theater. But man's true wisdom laid within the heart of his stories, the remarkable flowers which sprout from his vivid imagination. With soothing petals of words, he painted the rhapsody of the elements around him as well as the impressive creations of Mother Nature!

“It's so hooot! There's so much water too... nya~”

This alluring voice, yet which clearly lacked the energy belonged to another of my critics, which was none other than Tamara. The once lively kitten had turned now into a beautiful woman.

“Use your Magic Armor...”

With a calm and stoic tone of voice, the one who spoke was the stunning crusader and High Apostle, Zoreya. Her long blond hair fluttered in the wind, while her charming blue eyes gazed upon the horizon.

“Sigh... if only we could find a boat...”

The one to sigh was my beloved el'doraw Shanteya, a beautiful silver-haired flower with white skin and long ears like those of an elf.

“I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should freeze this ocean and simply walk on top of it...” grumbled Nanya.

“I want that...” Tamara agreed.

“I believe the gods have no problem with this.” said Zoreya.

“To freeze this landscape? We should do so only for a painting! I'm sure with enough practice, we can capture its magnifi... blurbaubua!” my words were cut short as I was slowly sinking under the lukewarm water.

Maybe it was finally time for me to lay down my swords and rest? Ah~ The joys of life... as they come, they also go...

[Shanteya's point of view]

“This... useless... husband of ours...” Nanya grumbled as she was breathing hard and pumping on Illsyore's chest to get all the water out.

Just a moment ago, a certain Godlike Dungeon Lord who forgot to activate his Magic Armor... again, ended up suffering from a heatstroke and nearly drowned in the ocean. Nanya was quick to go after him, but along the way... a giant fish ate him.

“Fishy good!” Tamara said delighted.

Her tail was swaying in the air as she gazed upon the prey she caught with her bare hands. It was big, maybe one hundred meters or so in length?

The nekatar immediately jumped after Nanya the moment she saw the fish. One should never underestimate the swimming power of a hungry adult nekatar, especially an Awakened one like her!

“How should we cook it?” Ayuseya asked as she lifted it up above the giant iceberg Nanya created.

Considering the small raft, we were using just a moment ago, it would have been impossible for us to save Illsyore from its gut, let alone cook it. Therefore, Nanya was kind enough to freeze a patch of this endless ocean and use it as a foothold.

“What sort of idiot Godlike Dungeon Lord who can hunt down Legendary Sea Serpents with one strike manages to get a sunstroke and then get swallowed by a giant fish?!” Nanya complained as she kept pumping the water out of him.

“Nya~ Our husband?” Tamara asked as she twitched her black ears.

After her Awakening, the cute nekatar turned into a stunningly beautiful woman with a big chest. And although she lost most of her fur and resembled humans quite a lot now, her ears, tail, eyes, claws, and teeth were left unchanged. In exchange, she was also far more powerful than before, being the fastest one among all of us five wives of Illsyore, and the last one to join our group.

“Tamara? Will you be removing the scales?” Ayuseya asked as she lifted the giant fish with [Telekinezy], the first Spell Illsyore learned.

“Yup! Yup!” she nodded three times and showed her a big smile.

“Ungh...” Illsy groaned.

“Is he coming through?” I asked.

“Nope... Still out cold.” Nanya said and then let out a heavy sigh.

“Fishy cooking time!” Tamara said as she extended her claws.

While the two of them were handling our meal and the demoness was taking care of our husband, I walked over to Zoreya, who was gazing at the endless ocean before us.

“Is something wrong?” I asked her.

“No... I was just thinking...” she shook her head and smiled back at me.

“About?” I took a seat next to her.

“Everything... The battle against The Darkness was almost six years ago... Then we came to that island and fought against Legendary Monsters. We discovered that Primordial Dungeon, which turned out to be rather... easy to conquer once we leveled up enough.” she looked down and gathered her knees at her chest.

“We couldn't have done it without Illsyore disabling all the traps first. They were extremely easy for him, but not for us. A party of Supremes wouldn't have lasted even a week in there.” I mentioned.

Illsyore never saw it as dangerous, but the rest of us knew that it wasn't anything to laugh at. The number of monsters there were enough to cause even a whole united continent to tremble just from hearing about it.

“True... I, alone, wouldn't have been able to survive no matter how many lives I had. Illsyore, although an idiot of a husband at times, he proved to be the only thing keeping us alive there. Even though it was entirely his own fault for bringing us there in the first place.” she furrowed her brow.

“But there were some unique moments which you enjoyed as well, especially 'that' night.” I giggled.

She blushed and looked away.

“I-It may have been my first time, but afterwards... I got used to it... sort off...” she shook her head “What are you making me say? It's unprecedented for a High Apostle to act like... like...” she tried to find her words.

“A normal woman in love?” I said.

“Yes... that... Sigh.” she hung her head low.

“Hehe! It's normal, Zoreya, don't fret about it. Besides, I never heard of someone praying to Melkuth to help them gather their courage to be able to join their own spouse in bed.” I showed her a sly smile.

“Ah! You heard that?!” she looked at me surprised.

“Yes, I was there...” I giggled.

“So~ embarrassing!” she let out another sigh.

“I'm sure Melkuth himself was rather surprised to suddenly hear you beckoning him to help you lay with a man... Hehe! Seeing how it worked though, maybe I should pray to the God of War for this as well?” I asked.

“They say love is a war, but Kleopatra is the goddess who governs this battlefield... Maybe I should have prayed to her instead?” she wondered and then shook her head “No, Melkuth helped me.”

With tears of blood, I bet... I commented in my mind. From what Illsy told us about him, he was quite reluctant to let go of Zoreya. Suddenly receiving a prayer to help her get in bed with the man who 'stole' her from him was probably akin to getting impaled in the chest by a spear.

“Still, you were the one who got a point ahead of us.” she glared at me for a moment and then softened her gaze.

“I'm just two months in now... I still have a long way to go...” I showed her a small smile as I rubbed my belly with one hand.

“I can't wait to see him or her, but Nanya was sure envious about it.” she giggled.

“Well, she was the first woman Illsy ever saw when she woke up in this world. She and Ayuseya were the first ones to marry him. She was also the one to take his first time, so having me take one of Illsy's firsts doesn't sound so bad to me.” I smiled.

“You could have waited until we made the academy.” she spoke.

“And let Nanya get the jump on me once more? Never!” I declared proudly.

“Despite how you look... you are one cunning and sly woman, aren't you?” she asked me with a wry smile.

“And when it comes to my family, I am pretty fierce too!” I declared.

“True... When you thought Tamara was eaten alive by that Sky God, you took the lead and hunted them down one by one. I have to admit, you were quite scary back then.” she laughed.

“In the end, we found her cooking their eggs in their nest. I got angry for nothing.” I let out a sigh.

“But it's good to know that you have our backs.” she smiled and gave me a hug.

“Thank you, but you really should think about wearing a dress... This armor must be uncomfortable.” I advised her as we pulled apart.

“When the academy is built, I will wear a dress in my free time, but until then, I'm wearing this armor!” she declared proudly as she knocked on the plate.

A light caught my attention, and when I turned my head, I saw Ayuseya roasting the already prepared and seasoned giant fish. She was using her [Fire Breath], a neat ability she discovered once she reached level 1000.

“Dinner should be ready soon.” I said.

“With Tamara cooking, I'm sure it will be delicious!” Zoreya said as she sat up.

“True, who would have thought the cute nekatar was going to be the best cook out of all of us? Even I am a bit ashamed to admit it...” I let out a sigh.

“Well, I was never good with the kitchen stuff... I also mostly ate simple easy to cook rations.” she pointed out as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Ah! He's finally waking up!” Nanya announced.

“Hm? Nanya?” Illsy said as he rubbed his forehead.

“It's me, dear. You had us scared for a moment. How are you feeling?” she asked him.

“Hm... Let me see... Good.” he reported as he groped her chest with one hand.

“Why are you measuring the state of your health through fondling my breasts?” she glared at him and slapped his hand away.

“I was just making sure this wasn't a dream.” he smiled back.

“Should I make sure of it?” she cracked her knuckles “I heard pain can't be felt in dreams!”

“I don't think that myth is accurate...” he smiled wryly an pulled back.

“Illsy, I'm glad to see you are alright.” I said and showed him a smile.

“Of course! To prove it, here! Colly Tos!” he said.

And with that, he stole Nanya's panties.

“Each and every time...” the demoness grumbled as she grabbed them while they were still floating in the air.

“Huh? I'm sure I was targeting Shanteya though...” he was looking at his hand and pointed at me. “Colly Tos!” he chanted again.

“Nya?” Tamara had a surprised look on her face.

This time it was the nekatar's panties.

“Wrong again?” he blinked surprised.

Nanya's anger was rising.

“COLLY TOS!” he shouted, and a pair of dark, silky panties appeared before him.

That's a very daring pair... I thought.

“Erm... Those are mine...” Zoreya told us shyly while pulling her head inside her armor like a tortoise.

“Hm. Hm. I like it!” he made a thumbs up at her.

“Idiot!” Nanya smacked his head, causing him to fall face first in the ice.

“Ow...” he grumbled.

“I told you for a million times to stop using that spell!” Nanya shouted in his ear.

“But-But...” he tried to say something but was stopped by her death glare.

“Huh? I thought I heard SOMETHING speak.” she said with a rough tone of voice.

“Nothing!” he quickly shook his head.

I let out a sigh.

These two were like a comedy duo. I had the chance to talk with Nanya once, and the true reason why she hated this spell was because she believed that one day, he was going to use it on all the women in a city. There was also another reason behind this, she actually wanted Illsy to slowly undress her if anything, not use a spell to remove her clothing. A suggestion, which to be fair, all of us would have enjoyed.

There was once a noble woman, to be more precise... Nanya's mother, who told her that the undergarments a woman wore were for her husband alone and thus should be a secret only he will be allowed to uncover, but only and only on their night of love and passion.

Just because of this, Nanya truly disliked that spell. Although, surprising Illsy in the bed was not that hard of a thing to do in the first place.

“Nya~ Windy!” the nekatar definitely didn't mind if she was either fully clothed or not.

After her transformation into the woman she was now, I remember her running all over the island butt naked. It took the effort of all four of us to capture her before Illsy saw her. We all feared he might end up making her his wife as well, a fear which proved to be true, since that was EXACTLY what happened.

With a sigh escaping my lips, I looked up at the sky and thought back as well at all the time we spent on the island. Six years went by in a flash, with most of the days just being a repeat of the previous ones... Wake up, get dressed, hunt for monsters, eat, sleep, and repeat. As for those nights of love and passion. We each took turns with Illsy and sometimes... two or three of us went in together, just to spice things up a little.

It makes me wonder though... are we the lucky ones or is Illsy? I thought as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of air.