Chapter 1888: Bonus: Pajama Party (Part 2)

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Sonia reached out to ruffle Meiwa’s head. Meiwa immediately lay obediently on the Sword Maiden’s lap, wagging her newly grown tail happily.

"Then I’ll say one too," Vishi calmly said, "He always asks me to show my love, so childish and annoying."

"Yeah, mine is pretty much the same," Weiser complained, "When I’m quietly reading, he suddenly comes over and bothers me, too clingy."

Diya seemed like she wanted to air (show off) a grievance as well, but Sonia held her down first and, with a smile full of anger, said, "Do you guys like it this way? Fine, I’ll say one too."

"You all know I’ve been cultivating Sound Techniques these past two years and, in the meantime, released more than a dozen popular singles, right? Half of those singles are thanks to Ash’s contributions. He helped with the lyrics and composition, spending a lot of time with me on music research. Otherwise, my Sound Techniques wouldn’t have caught up so quickly."

"And because he favors me so much, I feel too embarrassed to get peeved. After all, I’ve already received the largest share of love, so sharing a bit with you all is no big deal."

Sonia thought her words would ignite everyone’s anger and jealousy. However, when she looked around, she found that although there was some dissatisfaction in everyone’s eyes, there seemed to be even more... defiance?

"Ash also accompanied me to the soul refining of the six nations’ death row prisoners," Vishi snorted, "Now the death penalty in the six nations is divided into six levels: Death Soul, Resentful Soul, Evil Soul, Sorrowful Soul, Tortured Soul, and Soul of Eternal Damnation. He doesn’t let me kill, but he helped me develop an efficient and morally aligned soul refining mechanism, so now I have an endless supply of soul materials without lifting a finger. Ash told me not to tell you all so you wouldn’t get jealous."

"Ash also helped me separate the Witch Sisters!" Diya said, "Not a temporary body, but an identical soul body entity... When the sisters and I are one, Ash helps safeguard the entity, ensuring that whenever I return, he makes time to travel and play around with us sisters, and he hides it from you all because it’s our exclusive time together, proving his favoritism for us!"

"Wait a minute," Weiser sensed something was off as he turned to look at Freyja and Siflin, "You two wouldn’t happen to also have..."

Freyja hesitated for a moment but nodded, "These past two years, from Hell to Heaven, every level of the Void Realm, every country, has traces of Ash and me..."

"Our Blood Saint Clan has an ancient ceremony called the Ceremony of First Embrace," Siflin said with her lips pursed, "Usually, the Blood Saint Clan and mere mortals can only conduct the Ceremony of First Embrace once, because after it’s performed, the mortal becomes a new member of the Blood Saint Clan, and the Blood Saint Clan is heavily drained. But for Ash and me, such limitations are, of course, meaningless. Each First Embrace lasts up to 12 hours, and Ash and I occasionally do it secretly..."

Hearing this, Sonia reacted as well: "Hasn’t Ash told you all... not to tell the others, or they’ll get jealous?"

Everyone exchanged glances and nodded together.

After a brief silence, Weiser let out a sigh, "I kept wondering why things were so peaceful these past two years... almost no arguments... apart from seeing each other rarely, the main reason was that we all thought we were Ash’s favorite! So even if we felt jealous or unhappy when together, we were willing to endure it, because we each believed we received more love and naturally were willing to share a bit with others!"

"To think we were so easily duped by such a shallow trick..." Vishi was both annoyed and amused, "He really underestimated us..."

"There’s really nothing to get mad about," Diya thought and said, "After all, he specifically set aside time to date each of us, but why did he want us to keep it a secret?"

"Because what you all wanted was ’favoritism,’ not ’fairness,’" Siflin said, "If you knew others received the same, it wouldn’t feel special; instead, you’d think it was owed to you. But if you believe it’s special favoritism just for you, then in daily interactions, you’re naturally more willing to consider his feelings to avoid needless disputes. That’s why everyone got along so smoothly these past two years."

"But if you think about it, apart from us, others surely had similar dates, meaning Ash spent almost all his time trying to ’favor’ all of us," she looked around the room, "Ash is so lazy; his stuff should be scattered everywhere, but this bedroom has none of his belongings, showing that unless we’re back, he usually isn’t in this bedroom... or even at home."

"Sacrificing all his time to increase the total amount of love, then ’fairly’ distributing it to everyone, so that everyone experiences ’favoritism’... A Master of the Void Realm going to such lengths just to make us feel we didn’t love the wrong person... I really don’t know what to say about him."

Siflin finished speaking and waited for Freyja to echo her, but after a long while, Freyja showed no reaction. She patted Meiwa’s shoulder, only to see Meiwa’s face flushed, gazing back tenderly with heart-shaped pupils, surrounded by pink bubbles.

"...Are you okay with all this!?"

"What can I do, Sif, your words were so touching..." Freyja lowered her head, tightly crossing her legs, gently biting her lower lip, "When is Ash coming back..."

"It’s almost midnight," Diya also became a bit dejected, "His birthday is almost over..."

"Ah, today is Ash’s birthday? What do I do, I didn’t prepare a gift!"

"Don’t worry, just tie a bow around yourself, that’s what we’ve been doing the last couple of years."

"I missed Ash’s last two birthdays too!"

"Speaking of which, to surprise Ash before, we didn’t tell him about celebrating his birthday, but hid in a box so that when he opened it, we smashed cake all over his face..."

...

...

"Oh no, could they still be waiting for me?"

Ash hurriedly returned home, finding a drama playing in the living room, but the first floor was empty. There were three cake boxes on the dining table, but not even a slice of cake remained.

Ash thoughtfully went upstairs, opened the bedroom door, and saw six female mages lying on the bed.

Sonia lay in the center, with Freyja hugging her arm on the right, and Siflin holding Meiwa’s hand on the far right.

On Sonia’s left was Diya, curled up in a ball, beside her, Weiser and Vishi faced each other in sleep, even crossing and overlapping their feet.

The bed and pajamas were covered in cake and cream stains, clearly showing the aftermath of a food battle.

A group of Supreme Goddesses acting so childish... Ash couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. Even though he had been busy and exhausted in the Apocalypse World Line, seeing this scene made it feel like ice cream melting sweetly in his heart.

He quietly snapped a photo, mouthed ’Good night,’ gently switched off the light, and stepped out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him.