Vincent and the others returned to Daimon's skybox and then they left together, not without passing by near the Minister, who in his current good mood didn't forget to remember Vincent of their bet.
"Don't forget it old shark, those emblems of yours are going to look great in my trophy room".
Vincent felt the urge to laugh, but noticing Annete glaring at him, he cleared his throat and only said.
"Clean your treasury old turtle, it's going to be visited soon after all".
After saying that, Daimon's group left through the portal, while the Minister snorted.
'If you think my Arcarius family has shown everything we got, you are in for a surprise you old bastard, let's see who laughs last', thought Raymond.
Daimon and the others appeared at the other side of the portal, the gazes of all the people nearby fell on them, which is understandable, since tomorrow they will finally be participating in the tournament.
Vincent also noticed his cousin hostile gaze on him from afar, and he could tell what Tideus was thinking, but he ignored it and with a wave of his hand they all disappeared from the center of the city.
The scenery changed from the front of the city lord's mansion, to the entrance of the Valas Duchess's mansion, they entered and made themselves comfortable while the security head Mina prepared food for everyone.
During the previous days, the girls had sparred to get used to the abilities of each other, so today they just decided to rest so that they will be in their best condition for tomorrow.
While the girls chatted, Daimon inspected his beast pouches, in one Blacktooth has been consolidating his realm, since he broke through all of a sudden thanks to having eaten a part of the arm, from Ulkrear which Daimon got as war spoils.
'Blacktooth, how much will the piece of Ulkrear's arm will help you evolve?', asked Daimon.
The Devil Goblin shark thought about it for a second before answering.
'Originally at most it would have brought me to the breaking point of the middle stage of the Half Stellar realm, but with young master's help, I would say it's enough to get to the late stage!'.
At this point the previously resentful Goblin shark had nothing but admiration for Daimon, there is no magic beast which despise the strong, he who was stuck in the Mortal realm for a few hundreds of years, was suddenly catapulted to the Half Stellar realm, he was now following Daimon by his own will, not like it had a choice though, since he was still under the effect of the Ruler of the sea, but certainly why would he try to leave a young master that is so generous with him.
Also, he now learned of the existence of Vincent and he was honestly horrified, Annete beat the crap out of him and she wasn't even close to the top of the pyramid in what strength regarded, in other words, Blacktooh learned the meaning of the saying "It's better to be in the hands of the demon than in its way".
Daimon personally didn't care what Blacktooth thought, as long as he obeyed that was all he needed from him, since he will be playing a role in his plans.
The other thing Daimon wanted to check was how the contents of the vase in the other beast pouch were doing, so using mana sense he inspected it, the water had turned slightly darker, meaning it was working, but he could tell the concentration wasn't high enough to help him increase his Black Armored shark lineage, so he still had to wait some time before that.
'Oh well, I can keep it for an emergency or something, there is also that', thought Daimon as he opened the interface of the system and went to the title's tab, and checked the log of the system, with everything that has happened he forgot to check how did sanctuary changed after the level of trust Jasmin has on him increased.
[Sanctuary has been successfully updated, please keep working to reach its final state, current level of trust of the Daughter of the Northern Sky 30% (and increasing)]
[Sanctuary: Once a day, the host will be able to select full recovery of two of the following: mana, battle aura, stamina, vitality, or heal any wound as long as the host is still alive, effect added "Care of the Northern Sky's Daughter", now the effect will activate automatically if needed, even if the host isn't conscious, the selected recovery will be chosen depending on the situation]
[Further development, requires the host to repair the broken trust caused by the failure of the previous holder of the oath, to accelerate the process, demonstrate the Daughter of the Northern Sky you are worthy of the trust of her descendant]
Daimon raised an eyebrow, the change was quite simple but practical, he could now recover two of the things listed at will, also in case he was unable to activate the effect of the title on his own, the thing will activate by itself, it was indeed quite a nice addition to his repertory of passive abilities.
'I guess it makes sense, since the complete version saves one from death automatically once for free, though I honestly like this incomplete version more, since I don't plan on using Jasmin as a spare life', thought Daimon.
He inwardly shook his head, the system acted based on his desires and needs, so he is sure Jasmin's ability will be different than Aurora's, whether it is for the better or not, it's still hard to tell.
Daimon came out of his daze as he felt someone tugging on the corner of his clothes.
"Mm?", Daimon turned to see the origin of that and saw the Risha sisters sitting at both his sides, Aisha was originally sitting at his right, but now she was giggling at him as she left to the dining room since the food was ready, but Daimon was "daydreaming" when Mina came to inform them of it.
"What happened you three?", asked Daimon.
The sisters stared at each other before saying in unison.
"We'll crush our opponents tomorrow, in exchange when we return… we want you to visit the Risha family with us!".
Daimon saw those three's nervous expressions and he didn't know what to say, this had Aisha's "seal" all over it, in any case it's not like he could keep the sisters waiting forever, they are honest with their feelings and how could he consider himself a man if he doesn't make things clear.
"Sure, but you'll have to wait a few days after our return, there is also something you need to know before we go any further, if your current expressions don't change at that moment, then I'll have no choice but to accept three problematic sisters in my family", said Daimon, making the sisters blush.
After saying that, Daimon stood up and burned the image of their current obviously lovesick pretty faces in his heart, because he isn't sure what their answer will be once they get to know how "big" is his heart, and how many girls already live there.
Still, he trusted them enough to believe that even if they don't become his partners, they will still be his friends, if he didn't have at least this amount of confidence in them, he wouldn't have even considered them possible soulmates.
Aisha saw her son entering the dining room without the Risha sisters and she giggled in her seat.
'How was it darling, those three had become quite daring right~', she said directly to Daimon.
Daimon chuckled as he sat next to Aisha.
'Yes, I'm not going to rush things with them though, but they deserve a proper answer… and a certain mother deserves a nice spanking for teasing them too much'.
Aisha softly laughed, she was feeling in the mood for some love lately, so she couldn't wait for the moment they were all together again, since Daimon promised they will be taking a big step in their relationships after this.
That's why she didn't mind helping her friends, since she will be getting her share of the cake first.
Daimon saw Aisha who clearly didn't pay attention to his words and he sighed, he was still looking for a way to fulfill the requirements of his grimoire, the firs option was naturally the completion of the mission he got from stealing an opportunity from Adam, since there were so many damn things involved, then the rank of the feat should be quite high, depending on how well he faired he could reach the Divinity SSS rank.
If not, he still had a plan B in store, but with some luck there wouldn't be a need for it, he already wanted to unlock his grimoire, since that will be an immediate way to increase his strength.
The Risha sisters came not too late after Daimon, they looked rather happy as if something good happened to them, not too long ago, and then everyone enjoyed their meal.
Karkamndi and Lina also returned with good news for Thea, they left to see how were the preparations made by the other surviving general who is also the first ranked being an early-stage Stellar realm magic beast, though he was now Karmandi's subordinate as he was ascended.
"Everything is ready, the troops are hidden in the places proportioned by senior Vincent", informed Karmandi.
Thea nodded in response.
"Very well, tell them to just wait for the fun to start, we'll move along with general Daimon's greenlight~", said Thea putting emphasis in the word "general".
Daimon took a bite of his food, tomorrow he was going to be quite busy, crushing the other participants of the tournament in the morning, having a nice "conversation" with Annete and Mellie's father at noon and then a meeting with Black Wave at night.
Not to mention visiting the treasury of the Minister at the next day, and the travel to the Elemental Sea after that.
'Ah, damn, I'm going to vent some anger on that scheming bastard once I catch his ass, giving me so much trouble', thought Daimon.
Once they had their fill, everyone parted ways, the adults except Thea left to do their last preparations, while Daimon and the girls went to their room to rest.
The rest of the day went uneventful, if you don't take into account the fact that the Risha sisters, couldn't bear to even look in Daimon's direction, which Aisha of course used to tease them.
The princesses didn't know what was going on, so they didn't say anything and instead focused on tomorrow's strategy, the roles have been already decided, Aisha is the vice-captain, Yvonne will be the strategist and Mellie will be the scholar.
A person with knowledge about Neptune was needed for the scholar position and the best in that aspect in the group was Mellie, she has memorized a lot of books after all, do not look down on Yvonne, her mother idolized Erin and so she also learned and became skilled in the art of strategy, which she taught to her daughter as well, as for Aisha, well there is no need to explain, she was the most experienced in the group and could take the best decisions depending on the situation, not to mention her battle prowess didn't lose to anyone including Daimon, unless he used core synchrony of course.
In Daimon's case, his job was simple, crush everything in his way to reach an absolute and undisputable victory, he left the decision making to his mother this time.
And so, the night went on and after a few hours the moon left the sky and morning came to Neptune.
Daimon's biologic clock woke him up early today, his body was feeling perfectly rested and his fists were aching a bit, though he doesn't consider himself a battle maniac like Aura, he is an apex predator after all, staying still and not doing anything isn't in his nature.
To Daimon's surprise he noticed the sisters joined their bed with his, though they didn't approach him, they were closer to them than before, he didn't even notice when they did it.
Today he felt like taking a sip of Aisha's blood for some reason, so after making sure the others were still sleeping, he leaned his head and gently bit Aisha's neck.
"Mn~", Aisha's lips slightly opened and a soft and low comfortable sound escaped from them, after gulping down a couple of sips of his mother's blood, Daimon gently pecked her neck and watched the mark of his fangs disappearing without leaving any trace.
He took then separated from Aisha just to see her looking at him with an amused expression.
'Good morning darling, I also took a "late night snack" earlier, hope you don't mind~', she playfully said.
Daimon chuckled, he now understood why he was feeling quite energetic and, in the mood, to drink her blood, Aisha drank his while he was sleeping.
'We'll continue later', said Daimon as he gently pecked Aisha's pretty lips, and then he got up the bed, the others should be waking up soon, so he went straight to the bathroom to prepare, leaving behind an Aisha in a really good mood.
'I was going to wait until we returned, but I guess even I can't avoid but feel jealousy when it comes to you darling~', she thought, after seeing the Risha sisters being so bold, she also wanted some love from Daimon, so she went for it and now she had something she looked up to once they finished today's matters.
