While on Qia, Alexa and Genevieve try to find out more about Joel's plans to report to Lucien, he enjoys the time with Daisy in the purple world, and on the Sea Devil's deck, the other girls finish the banquet.
For most of them, that was the best meal of their lives, not only because the food was cooked with so much love by Lucien's wives, but also because most of them are more than close friends, they're family.
"Ahh…" Astrid takes a deep breath after drinking another mug of wine and patting her belly. "Everything was delicious."
"Indeed!" Cassidy responds.
"Yeah..." Scarlett lifts her mug of wine toward the table's center. "To the best banquet ever!"
Astrid and Cassidy look at each other thoughtfully. It's hard for them to forget about the whole past; in fact, they can never really do it alone. But they agreed to forgive old grudges for the sake of a new life along with Lucien and everyone around him.
Then they raise glass and mug to toast with Scarlett. "To the best banquet ever!"
Scarlett smiles, but before hitting her mug against the girls', she looks at Olivia and slightly nods. Olivia nods back and also raises her glass before they hit it together. "And to future banquets even better."
"I toast to it too!" Angela also adds her glass to the girls'.
"And I!" Aria does the same, followed by other girls, including Lucien's sisters.
The atmosphere is very cheerful, although the girls miss Lucien's presence at the table. They all also can't help but feel jealous of Daisy, which strengthens Envy and Greed.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"We'll have to do something even bigger in two weeks…" Claire thinks aloud as she drinks wine as well. All she can think right now is about Lucien.
Except for Lucien's other sisters, all the girls look confused, and Madelyn is the first to ask. "What will happen in two weeks' time?"
"Didn't Luci tell you about it?" Amelia responds with another question.
She shakes her head, and since all the other girls don't seem to know what that's about either, Lucien's sisters come to the conclusion that they really don't know anything about it.
"It will be his twenty-one birthday." Donna explains.
All the girls are surprised by that, and Mia is the first to comment on it. "He told me he had just turned twenty when we met..."
"But he told me he was twenty-one already." Kamala comments.
"He also told me he was twenty, but he didn't tell me when it was going to be his birthday again..." Angela comments. "He looked uncomfortable whenever I talked about it..."
"Why would he lie about it to us???" Maggie is perplexed, as are the other girls. They can't believe Lucien lied to them, especially about such a trivial thing.
"I don't think he lied…" Eve sighs as she makes a sorry expression.
"So, what was it?" Marie asks. "Did he forget his own birthday?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The girls wonder about that, but it seems very unlikely, and Olivia is the first to say it out loud. "Doesn't that sound too unbelievable?"
Eve feels her heart ache as old memories come back to her mind. "It's not illogical as it sounds... not when you understand that some memories are too painful to keep, so we force ourselves not to think about them and even try to alter them in our minds, something that doesn't really work."
While Lucien's other sisters make that same sorry expression, the other girls remain confused despite understanding that he has a reason for not wanting to remember his own birthday.
Cassidy can't resist curiosity and ask. "Can you tell us what happened to him?"
"You already know about it..." Eve comments.
"His mother..." Olivia comments as she knows that pain too.
"Yes..." Eve responds in a depressed tone. "The day Luci arrived at the mountain fortress was also his birthday... he cried a lot, so as all our sisters when they got separate from their mothers..."
Her other sisters bow their heads, but Eve continues explaining that painful story. "It took me a few days to get him to finally calm down and stop crying after our father told him she was dead."
"The first thing he said to me is how good the last day had been with his mother. He said that she had prepared an amazing birthday cake with strawberry icing and that it was the best thing he's ever eaten..."
Eve is touched by the memory of five-year-old Lucien's words, and some tears fall from her eyes. "He said he would never forget how much fun he and his mother had that day, eating cake and playing in the woods... his eyes sparkled as he told me how affectionate her tone was when she woke him up that day... and how beautiful she looked..."
The girls are also thrilled to imagine that scene. Due to their soul contract with Lucien, they feel how much he loves his mother and how much he suffers from not knowing what her actual situation is.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Those memories of him sounded beautiful..." Eve continues. "But it became a nightmare when his next birthday arrived. All of that, including the suffering and pain, came back and brought him down again, and again as other birthdays came..."
Eve is undoubtedly the person who has seen Lucien's suffering the most, and she also understands that perfectly because she also lost her mother, and it was the day of her birth. The only difference between them is that her mother died after giving birth, so she doesn't have any memory of her.
The girls can see that Eve is suffering so much, but only her sisters understand how much suffering that is. Yet, she tries to smile. "I told Luci to forget that so he doesn't suffer anymore... it turns out that his mother is still alive, and I will be very happy when he is reunited with her and doesn't have to try to forget his own birthday anymore."
Pride is surprised at an incredible amount of demonic energy being generated for her and Eve. But she quickly understands that it comes from all of Lucien's wives, from Saria, Maya, and even Nea, who hears that story from far away.
The demonic energy generated by respect is not just about quantity but also about honesty and quality. Lucien's wives love him so much, and they are incredible women, so the respect they feel for Eve for being such a good big sister to him is incredibly powerful.
Yet, the mood gets depressed as the girls can't stop thinking about Lucien and Eve's suffering. Everyone has their own pain, but their beloved ones' pain seems to hurt a lot more.
No one wants the happy feast to end in that sad way, so Naomi quickly thinks of something to change the mood. "Our life was really shit..."
"Our father wouldn't let us celebrate our birthdays; he said weapons don't need parties or birthday gifts..." She shakes her head with an annoyed expression.
"Weapons just need to keep sharp and ready to take lives!" Amelia speaks with a deep voice, trying to imitate Michael, which sounds very mocking and funny.
"Hahahaha..." Her sisters laugh, especially Claire. "He speaks just like that!"
"Hehehe... that idiot..." Donna laughs too, but soon the anger inside her heart makes her body burn. "I hate him so much… I'll kick him in the ass to death the next time we meet!"
All her siblings share the same pain and anger, so Sophia, who despite appearing to be sleeping but is actually listening to everything, comments in a low tone. "Maybe after my turn because you can't be the only one taking revenge on him, you know..."
Eve nods. "Yeah, we're all gonna kick his ass until he regrets being a shitty father... and then we'll keep kicking..."
"Wait!" Amelia makes a thoughtful expression. "Kick? Is that all you want?? Even if he dies from being so much kicked in the ass, it wouldn't be enough to make up for all our pain."
The sisters nod, and Donna is the first to comment on that. "Yes, he must suffer not only physically but in every other way possible!"
"Indeed, but how do we do that exactly?" Claire asks.
"How about I put him in an illusion of infinite pain??" Sophia suggests.
The girls smile when imagining that, but Eve shakes her head. "It sounds good, but his suffering has to be real just like ours. I don't care if he shits himself in fear inside your illusions, but I want to see the real pain in his eyes too."
The sisters keep thinking about something while the other girls observe them with varying expressions. For most people, seeing sisters trying to torture their father like that is weird, but everyone there understands that Michael is a horrible person and deserves such an end.
Maya is the only one who doesn't agree that daughters should kill their father. But since she can only imagine what suffering they've been through, she tries not to judge them.
Some girls want to help the sisters, and Lena makes a mean expression. "Why don't you give him the greatest pain for a man who has a harem?"
"Huh?" Claire and her sisters make confused expressions.
"Isn't it obvious?" Lena smiles. "Just make him lose his wives to another man."
"It sounds good!" Naomi quickly nods.
"Are you dumb???" Amelia quickly asks. "Or have you forgotten that our father's wives are our mothers???"
"Why is that a problem?" Naomi speaks. "We just need to find good men for them... in fact, anyone should be better than our father."
"But they are our mothers..." Claire comments. "They don't deserve just any man but the best."
"We have the best..." Sophia comments and everyone quickly understands who she is talking about.
"But…" Claire still doesn't seem to agree with that. "They are our mothers... and his aunts... wouldn't that be..."
"Weird? Wrong??" Sophia speaks in a sarcastic tone. "I thought we had already overcome it. It isn't really a problem when we have so much shit in our lives already; it's actually the solution to a lot of those problems."
Donna doesn't comment on that due to her strange relationship with her mother and Eve due to not having a mother. And because of that, they both get a little sad.
The other girls try to stop the sisters from starting a hostile discussion, and since it was Lena who suggested that, she tries to say something again. "It's not as weird as it sounds... I mean, sharing Lucien with my mom."
"I don't think I'll ever know what that is like..." Eve comments in a sad tone. But she doesn't know how surprising fate can be, and even though her mother is dead, there is another way to experience that situation.
