Gathering Wives with a System

Chapter 725: Progress Towards Basement Ending, Calamity Dragon

Isaac glanced at Jasmine as well, a faintly amused expression appearing on his face. "She probably just hasn’t found a way to get rid of me yet."

Jasmine slowly turned toward him. "Don’t worry, Lord Isaac. I’m sure I’ll find it soon."

The ’banter’ between Isaac and Jasmine eventually came to an end, and Isaac decided there was no reason for them to remain in the same place. He left with his wives and spent the rest of the day roaming around the city, taking in the different streets and markets. Alice walked beside him with her hand entangled with his, while her attention remained on Emily, who was being dragged from one stall to another by Celia.

"Are you thinking about telling them?" Isaac asked after they had walked for some time.

"Yes, they need to know about it too," Alice replied with a quiet nod. Her voice was soft, and although she seemed hesitant, she did not appear to be reconsidering her decision.

Isaac gently squeezed her hand as they continued walking. He knew the matter was difficult for Alice to talk about, so he did not press her to say anything more than she was ready to share.

"I think I know why Jasmine is talking to me now," Isaac said, deliberately changing the subject.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, turning her attention toward him.

"It’s because of the Emperor. She looked quite shocked yesterday when he suddenly appeared, and then the Emperor and Master told us to get along before disappearing again, so I think Jasmine is trying to figure out how we are connected to the Emperor," Isaac explained.

Alice thought about his words before nodding slowly. Isaac was currently using his evolved Aura to modify the disguising skills around them, making sure that nobody nearby could hear their conversation, so they were able to speak without worrying about being overheard.

"That reminds me, why is the Emperor so... small?" Alice asked. "He looks like a kid."

"I have no idea," Isaac admitted. "I checked what information I could find, and he is supposed to look older, but his current appearance is exactly how he looked during his childhood."

Alice frowned as she thought about that. The Emperor’s appearance had already been strange enough, but the more they talked about him, the more questions seemed to appear.

"It’s also weird that he never visited Master. If I remember correctly, Master doted on him the most, and the two of them were quite close," Alice said after a moment.

Isaac nodded in agreement. The situation surrounding the Emperor did not make much sense, especially when compared to everything they knew about his relationship with Master. He had already considered several possibilities, but none of them explained why the Emperor had suddenly appeared in his current form.

Then Isaac remembered something that had happened before the Emperor left.

"What are you thinking about?" Alice asked when she noticed his expression change.

"Before the Emperor left, he sent a telepathic message to me. He told me, ’Take care of Master,’" Isaac said.

Alice fell silent after hearing those words. She seemed to be thinking about their meaning, and Isaac did not interrupt her while she tried to make sense of them. He simply held her hand and continued walking beside her.

Isaac had left most of the work in the city to his clones, so he was happy enough to spend the day enjoying the way with his main body, especially since this was a date with his wives. The [Garden of Flowers] City did have quite a few specialties, and walking around the city gave them an opportunity to experience some of them instead of constantly staying inside the hotel.

The citizens still seemed somewhat concerned about the explosion that had occurred during the night and the disappearance of the palace. However, a message had already been passed throughout the city explaining that the destruction had been caused by an experiment conducted by the Queen that had gone wrong, and it also made clear that there had been no attack from outside.

That made Isaac sigh.

Although he disliked Jasmine, he could not deny that he had caused considerable damage to her. Her reputation would certainly suffer because of what had happened, especially since she had supposedly destroyed her own palace through an experiment. Isaac knew that the explanation would not completely erase the questions surrounding the incident, but at least it prevented the city from falling into panic.

He could not help thinking about the Emperor and Master again. Even they had asked him to get along with Jasmine, and he also felt bad about what he did, but Isaac still could not bring himself to get along with her, and he was not going to pretend that everything between them had suddenly been resolved.

After roaming around the city for several more hours, the group eventually returned to the hotel. Celia was still full of energy despite the fact that they had been walking around all day, and although everyone in the group had high stats, the constant activity was still mentally tiring. Somehow, Celia looked as though she could continue shopping for several more hours without feeling tired.

"Who are you buying so many things for?" Isaac asked as they moved toward his room.

"They’re souvenirs. Everyone in the crew asked me to bring some things back for them," Celia replied happily.

Isaac glanced at the bags she had put in her spatial ring but decided not to question her further. Once they entered his room, he opened the passage to the spatial domain and allowed everyone to enter, giving them a quieter place where they could talk without worrying about anyone overhearing them.

Evolved Aura had helped Isaac greatly with his teleportation skill. Previously, his teleportation skill had been higher rank than the city teleporters, but the difference was not large enough for him to remain still inside the spatial cloud, so he had needed to keep moving and his vision had always been almost completely blocked.

Now, things were different because the evolved Aura had strengthened the skill considerably. Isaac could remain in one place within the spatial domain, and his vision was no longer blocked within a certain range, since the higher level of his teleportation skill allowed him to choose how ’deeply’ he wanted to travel into the spatial domain.

However, he could not simply open the teleportation cloud at an extremely shallow depth. If he did that, the black smoke that concealed him would not be present, which meant that anything existing within the spatial domain could potentially see him. Isaac therefore kept himself at a depth that allowed him to see around somewhat without exposing himself unnecessarily.

Once everyone had settled inside, Isaac brought out chairs for them and sat down with the others. He then spoke to Celia about her brother and asked how his journey was going, giving her the information he had gathered and answering the questions she had been holding onto.

After everything was discussed, Celia thanked him and seemed relieved to hear that Vale was doing well. However, her attention soon shifted toward Alice, and the expression on her face changed slightly.

"So, what is happening?" Celia asked.

"Yes, Alice, what happened?" Emily added. "You look worried."

Alice looked at both of them before turning toward Isaac. He gave her a small nod, silently telling her that she could tell them everything, and Alice took a slow breath before beginning.

She explained what had happened and told them about the situation they had been keeping to themselves. She tried to remain calm while speaking, but the more she explained, the harder it became for her to keep her emotions under control, and by the time she finished, her eyes had reddened again.

Emily remained silent with her head lowered as she looked at her hands. Celia was biting her lips while staring at Isaac, apparently trying to process everything she had just heard, and for several moments, neither of them seemed to know what they should say.

Celia continued looking at Isaac before finally turning toward Alice. She moved closer and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug while Alice remained still.

"Don’t cry. It’s not your fault about what happened, so you shouldn’t blame yourself for it," Celia said softly.

Alice nodded.

She had already told them about her theory that the memories they had seen belonged to a previous cycle of the world, so the details of those memories had clearly affected both Celia and Emily more than she had expected.

Celia suddenly smiled, as if she were trying to lighten the mood. "Honestly, I think if there is someone to blame, it’s Isaac. He’s always doing things that somehow end with him getting hurt. From what we’ve seen in those visions and memories, to how he proposed to Catherine to the way he fought Jasmine in her kingdom without considering what he would’ve done if the World Tree hadn’t supported him and had instead supported Jasmine."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, pulling back slightly from the hug as she looked at Celia. She could tell from Celia’s expression that there was more behind those words than a simple joke.

"I’m saying we need something that can lock him up instantly if he decides to do something dangerous again," Celia replied, still smiling as though she were making a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

Isaac flinched when Celia turned her attention toward him. She was smiling and speaking casually, but he could sense possessiveness, anger, worry, and several other emotions mixed together in her gaze, which made it clear that she was not entirely joking about the idea.

Celia was serious about finding a way to restrain him if he ever did something that put his life in danger again. Isaac had enough experience with her to know that once she decided on something, she would do it no matter what.

Isaac realized that he needed to say something before the situation developed further. If this devil actually joined forces with Alice on the matter, there was a very real possibility that they would eventually create some method of locking him up whenever he acted recklessly. He knew that he was stronger than both of them, but he had no intention of taking that chance, especially when they were already discussing the matter so seriously.

He stepped forward and pulled all three of them into a hug at once. Alice, Celia, and Emily were caught slightly off guard by his sudden movement, but Isaac simply smiled as he held them close.

"It will be fine, so you don’t need to worry," Isaac said. "Don’t you know how strong I am?"

"And stupid too," Alice added without hesitation.

Isaac’s smile twitched slightly as he looked at her. Celia laughed softly, while Emily covered her mouth as she tried not to laugh, and for a moment, the heaviness that had filled the room finally eased.

After joking around for a while, the mood in the spatial domain became even lighter. Alice eventually grew quiet, and after thinking about something for a moment, she looked toward Isaac with a thoughtful expression.

"This reminds me, I think I know what is inside me now," Alice said.

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked, turning toward her while Emily continued holding his hand. He could tell from Alice’s expression that she was not making a casual remark, and his attention immediately shifted toward her.

"Gael has been talking about something dark being inside me, right?" Alice said. "It’s also strange that my dragon form is black instead of gold, especially when everything I know about my bloodline suggests that it should have been different."

Isaac’s expression became serious as he listened. He had wondered about the same thing before, but there had never been enough information for him to draw a clear conclusion, and Alice’s words made him realize that she might finally have an answer.

In fact, even he had come to a possible answer after hearing her memories.