Chapter 468: Playing the Good Devil Again
Chapter 468: Playing the Good Devil Again
The distance to Daisy's castle isn't long, but that journey seems to be taking hours. That's because the mood between Lucien and Heike is really tense.
Two possessive men who want the best for the women they love but don't accept each other's behavior. They don't even know each other well, but they can already identify the traits they hate in each other.
Heike is already seventy-four, and Lucien is much more mature than most people of his age, but both seem to act like kids while gazing at each other.
Rose continues to hug Lucien while Daisy hugs Heike, is still avoiding Heike's touch, which leaves him with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Somehow, the girls already knew it was going to be like that because they know the men they love and how arrogant and stubborn they are.
Heike is acting the way Daisy expected, but Lucien isn't really. He and Donna could destroy Petra in one night, leaving no stone unturned, but he is acting quite diplomatic and calm as a true good devil.
'A dragon being merciful to ants for the woman he loves.' That's the way Daisy sees that situation, and inside her heart, even though it hurts, she knows Heike wouldn't do the same for her.
She doesn't blame her husband and doesn't even think that it is his fault. She understands well how power influences people, and those very powerful don't accept any shit from others much weaker.
But Lucien is doing it now for Rose. There is nothing he wouldn't do for his beloved one because their happiness and safety are what matters most to him.
Daisy doesn't notice, but she's gazing at Lucien right now. Many people, including Rose, notice her thoughtful look, but Heike doesn't. He is very focused on gazing at Lucien and his hand on his beloved daughter's waist.
"Rose… my daughter," Heike speaks in a loving tone. "Are you mad at me?"
"Of course not, Dad." She sighs and walks over to him before hugging him. "I just don't like how things are going."
Heike makes a sorry expression as he continues to look at Lucien over Rose's shoulder. "I understand, and… I know this is my fault. I'm so sorry."
Rose hugs her father more tightly. "I love you so much, Dad, and I want you to get along with Lucien because I love him so much too."
"I see, darling." He responds as he realizes Rose's feelings for Lucien seem stronger than he thought.
"And getting along with him means respecting his family, my new family." Rose continues. "Those creatures that Donna killed were terrible dragons that destroy worlds. They would destroy this world after taking everything your people have, but she defeated them even though she had no reason to help you."
"But..." Heike tries to sound respectful. "She is clearly hostile to us, and I don't even know how did we offend her."
Donna shakes her head and turns away, returning to the sofa, where the other girls wait. Then Rose sighs. "People like us try to enslave her people in her homeworld, and she finds my mother's help in making you and the other Lords more powerful than anyone else in this world really unfair."
Heike still doesn't understand why Donna doesn't like his people. He thinks the strong should rule over the weak no matter what, which is the most basic law of nature, predators devour prey.
But he also understands that Donna saved them, and even though she doesn't like them, they have to be grateful to her. "You're right, daughter. I acted like an idiot... but these people came out of nowhere, and I was afraid..."
"Let's start over," Lucien suggests. "Let's forget about that bad situation and get along."
"Yeah..." Heike smiles as he agrees with Lucien. However, a part of him knows that it won't be easy to get along with someone so peculiar.
Rose and Daisy can see that Heike is still very hesitant to accept Lucien, but he's doing his best, so they smile as the stone ships fly toward their big castle.
The castle is gigantic, and the buildings around it also belong to Daisy and Heike. So Lucien's troops explore the place, taking time to just relax while he and his family enter the castle.
And as Daisy knows that Lucien is always concerned about Bloody Rose, she wants to take him, Donna, and Amelia, quickly to her laboratory while Rose takes the other girls on a tour of the castle.
"I'm going with you," Heike speaks while holding Daisy's hand.
But she lets go of his hand while making a sorry expression. "You better not get involved in this; you wouldn't understand."
Heike is confused and curious, but he doesn't really understand a lot about Daisy. That way is easier since he doesn't have to worry about her things, especially those related to her 'vampiric side.'
And despite feeling an instinctive premonition that it's not good to leave his wives hanging around with the devilishly attractive Lucien, Heike chooses not to oppose her anymore, at least for now. He also needs a strong drink and time to process everything that's going on.
"I will speak with the servants to prepare a feast for our guests." He smiles.
"Family." Daisy corrects him. "They are our family now, don't forget."
"Yeah, I meant family." He smiles at her before heading towards the kitchen.
Daisy doesn't like it, but she can't deny that she feels relieved when Haike leaves them. She's been tense since they met, and even though she thinks it's just fear that he and Lucien end up fighting, she feels there's something else upsetting her.
Lucien also feels that something is wrong. He's actually quite concerned about what he's seeing. He's not a marriage expert, but he can already see many flaws in Daisy and Heike's relationship.
"Shall we go to my lab?" She asks. "All my Bloody Rose research is in there."
"Sure, lead the way." He responds and then follows Daisy along with Donna, Amelia, and the Sins.
As the castle is quite huge, the walk to Daisy's laboratory, on the highest floor, takes a few minutes, and during that time, they talk.
"Why didn't you let your husband come with us?" Lucien asks.
"It is complicated," Daisy responds but realizes that her response doesn't sound good, so she tries to explain. "Well, he wouldn't understand anything about it, and he doesn't like to interfere in my things either."
Lucien shakes his head. "It doesn't feel right. I mean, you should know everything about each other to support each other. If something's important to you, that should be important to him as well. But for that, you can't push him away."
Daisy doesn't really understand what Lucien means. She always took care of her things alone before meeting Heike and after too. On simple matters or things related to Rose, they decide together, but she can't really share things about her alchemy or vampire nature with Heike as he doesn't like that.
"Why do you care so much about my relationship with my husband?" She asks.
Now it's Lucien who doesn't know what to say. "I just want us to be a big happy family." He smiles. "But you can tell me if I'm too annoying."
Daisy giggles as she thinks it's funny to be getting marital advice from a guy over two hundred years younger than her.
"You're right; we should share more of the things that matter to us." She comments but then makes a sad expression.
"But that's impossible as Heike doesn't feel comfortable with a lot of things about me..." She doesn't really know how to explain it. "Humans, in general, don't accept the unknown well. That's why they are a poorly evolved race."
"Hmm..." Lucien doesn't fully believe Daisy's words. The part about humans is genuine because even though they are one of the biggest races in the universe, they are divided and don't have enough power to be considered a superior race.
But he doubts Heike doesn't really want to be more involved in Daisy's life. Well, he doesn't understand much about vampires either, let alone alchemy, but he would be willing to learn to get closer to his wife and believes most men would do the same for a woman like Daisy.
Also, he saw Heike try that, and Daisy deny him such an opportunity. But Lucien doesn't know what their daily lives are like to be sure of anything yet.
After Lucien was silent, Daisy felt uncomfortable. "I think he's afraid of me sometimes."
"Fear?" He can't believe that. Daisy is so sweet and kind, so how could her husband be afraid of her?
"I think so, well he always acts confident, but he also ignores me a lot." She explains. "I think he's afraid of anything that involves a power greater than what he understands. He doesn't like to leave his comfort zone."
Lucien makes a thoughtful expression. "Maybe it's because of the huge power difference between you and him. Can't you help him get stronger?"
"I tried." She quickly responds. "I wanted to use all the resources I had left to help him, and Rose get stronger before I di... But he only accepted my help to get to the Mortal Realm. Now he says he wants to get stronger on his own with training or whatever."
"Pride..." He comments. "What about Rose? Did she travel to the western continent to get stronger on her own?"
Daisy sighs and nods. "Yes, she wanted so badly to prove to Heike that she could get stronger without my alchemy. She wanted him to be proud of her... and now she so badly wants him to accept you."
Lucien can see that Daisy is under too much stress. But he also realizes that the way she talks about Heike is very different from how his wives talk about him.
[Why does it look so different?? I don't think I have any normal relationships, or... their relationship that's wrong.] He thinks.
They finally arrive at Daisy's lab door, but she wishes the distance was bigger so she could have more time to talk to Lucien. She never spoke those thoughts out loud and now feels relieved.
"Here we are." She comments as they enter the lab. The room is quite big, occupying most of that floor of the castle; however, there is not that much empty space inside.
There's a mess in the room, with books strewn all over the place, whether on the floor, on dusty furniture, or even on the chandelier. There are also cauldrons and ingredients like herbs, mushrooms, stones, and dozens of other things Lucien and his sisters don't recognize.
The place smells like potions, but Lucien can also feel Daisy's natural scent throughout. "You spend a lot of time here, right?"
She smiles. "Here is the only place I've felt at peace in the last dozens of years."
"So you need to meet new places." He puts his hand on her shoulder as he laughs.
Daisy feels quite close to Lucien and enjoys talking to him about anything as he seems to really listen to what she says.
She laughs too. "You're absolutely right."