Gurgle~ gurgle~ gurgle~
In the long, lingering echo of that sound, a drawn-out cry pierced the night sky.
Relying on his immense stamina, Takumi emerged victorious. He even drank Milim's blood and plundered her entries.
[Ding! Milim's affection has reached the threshold. Entry copied from defeated target: Lord of Wrath (Gold)]
[Ding! Entries acquired: Dragonoid (Gold), Star Particle Manipulation (Gold)...]
[Star Particle Manipulation (Gold): Allows you to manipulate star particles, even condensing the power of a supernova explosion.]
The instant the three entries fused into him, Takumi's aura surged a notch. The Dragonoid bloodline merged into his own DNA, swelling his magic capacity by more than double in an instant. The boost to his physical body, however, was comparatively minor.
My current magicule count is 165,720,000! It's growing with every minute and every second, as if it had no end. And as for Lord of Wrath (Gold)...
Takumi immediately activated Wisdom King and consolidated the power he had just gained. His surging aura swiftly settled, and his mastery of the two newly acquired skills shot to an almost unquantifiable degree.
Turn anger into fuel, and magicules grow without limit. But the cost is just as obvious: let the anger grow too strong, and I'll lose control. And once that happens, the angrier I get, the harder it is to settle down. But that isn't a problem for me.
Takumi's mind raced at light speed. His Wisdom King could partition off his own anger. When the time came, his rational mind would run the battle while rage supplied limitless power from behind. That way, the so-called "cost" simply didn't apply to him.
Satisfied with that, Takumi smiled.
"Stop arguing, all of you. I'm tired now. Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow. Hah~"
He yawned, his voice reaching Shuna, Shion, and the other girls. Not knowing that Milim was currently sprawled fast asleep across him, they all turned back, dejected.
The girls exchanged glances, each arriving at the same conclusion: they needed to work out a cooperative, win-win plan. This kind of lose-lose situation, born from trying to hog him all to oneself, simply wouldn't do.
The next morning, when Chloe came with Shizue as usual to wake Takumi, they discovered Milim burrowed into the bed.
"Eep! Milim-nee—what is she doing in here?!"
Chloe's voice was full of confusion and envy. Milim looked about the same age as her, but from the look of things now, she'd already gone all the way in, straight to the stomach.
Shizue, meanwhile, shot Takumi a look that said how could you be so "wicked"? In response, Takumi returned an expression of perfectly righteous virtue.
"Milim's not a little kid. She's thousands of years old. If anything, I'm the tender young grass."
"..."
Such a well-founded rebuttal left Shizue utterly speechless.
"Uu~ if Milim-nee is allowed, then... I..."
"Chloe, don't let him corrupt you."
Shizue clapped a hand over Chloe's mouth to keep her from going on. Then she glared at Takumi indignantly. "Breakfast is about to be served. Get up, quickly."
"Mmm-hmm."
Takumi stretched and nodded half-heartedly. As he did, he patted Milim. Smack, smack~
Milim, now sporting a couple more handprints, groggily opened her eyes. "Uu~ what gives... stop hitting me. You can do whatever you want~ snore~"
She mumbled once, and her eyes fell shut again. At that sight, Takumi nearly couldn't hold back. At the same time, he had to admit that Milim's physical resilience truly was something else. Not even the battle-tested Kureha and Setsuna could take as much as Milim could.
Knowing full well this wasn't the time to be rough with her, Takumi said, "Time to get up."
"I don't wanna! Why does a Demon Lord have to wake up early?!"
Milim grumbled, trying to find a different position to keep lying in, only to discover she was more or less pinned in place. When she tried to pull away, a wave of weakness flooded through her.
Takumi had no choice but to forcibly sit up, slide his hands under her arms, and lift her up.
"Getting up early means breakfast—all kinds of tasty things."
He coaxed her like a father soothing a child. The mention of food immediately brought Milim to life.
"Tasty things! Then I'm getting up!"
Her little legs kicked through the air, nearly swinging right into Takumi's face. Fighting down the urge to take a bite out of that "popsicle," he gave her perky rear another smack.
"Be good and hold still. Let me get your clothes on."
"Muu~ I want to wear something more light and airy."
"No. From now on, you'll wear this."
"But it feels kind of stiff and stuck when I move. It's a little uncomfortable."
"That's all in your head. It's made of nanomaterials, and it really suits you."
"Oh? Really?!"
With just that bit of soothing, Milim's mood brightened in an instant, and she obediently held out her arms and let Takumi dress her.
After all that wrangling, Takumi felt as though he were looking after his own daughter. And Milim, for her part, was clearly enjoying being doted on by him.
Once fully dressed, though, she hotfooted it to the dining table. On the table sat toast, jam, milk, wontons, steamed buns—just about everything imaginable. She scrambled into a chair and immediately began devouring it all with relish.
"Yummy! This one's super yummy too!"
Milim couldn't stop praising the food between bites, and inside she quietly resolved to cling to Takumi for the rest of her life. She'd rather die than go back to her old territory, the Dragon Capital, and gnaw on raw vegetables again. Going from frugality to luxury is easy; going back from luxury to frugality is hard. And for a willful girl like Milim, she had no intention of ever suffering so much as a scrap again.
Watching her wolf everything down, Takumi didn't bother saying anything. The kid really had been starved—he'd stuffed her that completely full, and she could still eat this much.
The other girls, too, kept stealing glances at Milim. By now, Shuna and the others had figured it out: while they had been fighting like the snipe and the clam, Milim the fisherman had reaped all the spoils.
How infuriating. She may look like a little child, but she's so scheming.
When it comes down to it, she's one of the most ancient Demon Lords. We can't underestimate her!
Shuna, Shion, Treyni—they shared their thoughts through their mental network. Eventually, they settled on a policy for jointly driving off the common "enemy": everyone joins in, and no one tries to keep him all to herself. That way, at least no opportunist like Milim could slip through and seize the advantage while they fought among themselves.
While they were arguing, the group Takumi had rewarded—Freya, Setsuna, and the others—also woke up. Brimming with energy, they learned from Kagali that the three-front subjugation war was underway and immediately wanted to head to the front lines to fight.
They'd fight on the front lines, and after coming back, they'd "fight" again. For Setsuna and the others, this was the dream life they had always longed for.
...
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