Chapter 9: Jealousy of women.

-Clank! Clank! Clank!

Sparks flew inside the sparring area in their underground base as a white sword clashed with a red dagger.

The people present in the area could only see a red ray of light that was clashing with a white ray of light, moving at a speed that they could barely track with their untrained eyes.

"They’re at it again."

"Drew is testing out the enhanced effects again."

The white knight, their chef Lily, was using about 45% of her strength right now, using a fraction of her energy to maintain her form as she went against their leader and husband who was using everything he could muster out right now.

"He’s pushing himself again."

Watching the two of their insane movements, the other two who were working on a black box-like device could only sigh helplessly.

Lily was strong, very strong if they considered the restrictions she has to put on herself all the time. But the one fighting her was merely as strong as an (A-rank) knight.

He wasn’t mind blowingly powerful, at least not outside of the bed. So, with only the power he gained from his red dagger, he was fighting against an opponent that was simply too strong and too experienced for him.

"At least the two of them seem happy right now."

"Well, of course they are happy."

The two of them were the crazy duo in this group. Whenever it came to fights that they were certain about, they did not back down and most of the time, they were facing the challenge with a crazy smile on their faces.

They also had their crazy smiles present on them right now. They loved going against one another in friendly fights like these.

"They almost ended up killing each other when they first met and they still try to kill each other every time they are fighting."

"It’s exhausting just to watch them do that. Haaa..."

Sam and Beth were not crazy powerful fighters like these two. They had their own specialities but direct fights were not one of them.

If anything, watching the two of them was a fun activity for the two. And even more fun are the times when they don’t have to worry about the enemies in any situation when they are protecting them.

"It seems like they are about to finish." Sam was looking at the two just as they stopped for a moment.

It was a brief moment small enough to only cover a second or two. But that was enough for them to gather their strength on the edge of their blades.

-Zuuuuup!

-Clang...!

The two dashed forward and clashed their weapons in a single powerful moment.

But, the result was obvious.

-Saaaaa– Ghaap!

Andrew was thrown all the way to the wall on the other side, colliding with the wall like a pebble thrown at a mountain.

"There he goes again."

Thankfully, the entire arena they were fighting inside was made to prevent any dangerous injuries so, not only did he only get hurt minimally, the moment he was lying on the floor, a distinct compartment opened up and sprayed a green, healing potion all over him.

"He isn’t even a masochist and yet he goes around asking her for a duel every chance he gets."

"Maybe he is a masochist. We should call him a conditional masochist."

"No, Beth. If we do that, he’ll ask us to do weird things to him at night."

Sam said that but she knew damn well none of them would mind doing anything for him.

He was the most important one in their lives. Living for him was all they wanted to do... and they’d not let anything get in the way of that.

"Umm... I guess you want him to be a masochist, huh Betty?" She was blushing while thinking about weird things.

Sam knew if those two were crazy about fights, then this youngest one here was crazy about their husband.

She was surrounded by a bunch of crazy people.

"Ugh..."

As the two were thinking their own things, Andrew walked back to them with Lily’s support.

It didn’t seem like he was hurt, but even if his injuries are healed with the potions, the impact must have shaken him down quite a bit.

He’ll need some rest before he gets better.

"Sit." Lilly helped him sit down beside the other two, and then went to the other side of the room to pick up a few things.

The most important of the things she brought back with her was a medicine to ease up the pain: which she drank herself and then poured it all into his mouth through a kiss.

"Hey!"

"Not fair, Lily!"

It was sudden and the other two couldn’t help feeling jealous so the moment she stepped away, Beth jumped on him and sat down in his lap.

"Ugh!"

He was hurting already but he’ll be better with that medicine.

"It’s your fault to begin with!"

She kissed him as well, and while she did not want to let her dear husband go, she was pushed back by the mage who wasn’t going let this madness continue.

"Let him breathe, you dumb kitten!"

Sam was angry at both of them. They attacked him even though he wasn’t feeling well.

"Hey, honey... are you alright?" She was concerned about him. And from the looks of it, she wasn’t going to do the same as the other two.

But he couldn’t just leave him like him.

"Come here." He pulled her closer himself and gave her a warm kiss, one more intimate than what the other two had stolen from him.

"...!"

She was the smarter one. She knew he’d do that, but it still felt so so good that she almost melted in his hands.

"Haaa..."

After that, he simply sat back down in his place and looked at the other two who were obviously finding it unfair.

"It’s your fault, ok? Now come, sit."

That was enough jealousy for the day.

He made all three of them sit down and picked up an apple from the fruit basket Lily had brought over.

"Insted of doing these things, why don’t we discuss what more we are missing."

He started peeling the apple with his red dagger while asking them to discuss the mission details. But, how can they do that when he was using a weapon made to kill the Divinities to cut a mere apple?

"Don’t just stare at me like that. Speak, ladies."

They should have gotten used to it by now but they just couldn’t do it.

What he was using to cut an apple was a weapon that could cut an arm if he didn’t handle it properly.

Even if it seemed to be a simple weapon made of glass, it was an ancient relic mentioned in countless folklores, a weapon that only he would use to cut a freaking apple.

"Hmm. Nice."

He was happy when the apple came out clean. He also cut it evenly into four pieces for each one of them and picked one right up as the dagger vanished inside of his hand.

"Haaaa."

The three sighed at once in a sync, making him look at them with a light confusion.

He wondered why they were being like this but they soon picked up their piece of apple as they went back to the main topic.

"We’re almost done. We can leave on the scheduled time."

Betty and Sammy were wrapping up their work while the rest of them were already done with their preparation over the last few days.

The ones who will take their place here were ready as well and they had confirmed the identities under which they were going to infiltrate the palace as well.

"Good. Then we will kill the three of them, take their place, get inside the palace, and continue on. Lily will come to the palace as the guest."

What they received from the Ouroboros executive was a [Medal of honor], a special medal given to the meritorious individuals in the Mayn kingdom.

Anyone who has this honor can ask one thing from the royal family depending on the rank of the medal and even though the one they had was of the lowest rank (Bronze), they had at least secured an official visit to the palace with it.

Using it like this hurts them quite a bit knowing how they could use that thing to get out of some bigger trouble, but if they finish this quest, they will have a direct connection with the royal family.

This much wasn’t too bad for something of greater value.

"Alright?"

They had discussed the rest of the plan. But there’s one problem.

"How do we kill the three of them?"

They were going to kill the three palace servants they would impersonate, no questions about it.

But, what can they do to make their deaths as painful and dreadful as possible?

"Hmmm..."

They would have to think a little deeper about this one.