The Conquerors Path

"I want to be there when you deal with this..."

Grace said as she pointed at the file. Nora nodded her head at those words. No doubt, she too wants to take place in the culling of the Hillcloud family.

"If that's what you want then, you can be beside me at that time, under cover of course."

Hearing my words, Grace nodded her head. Seeing so, I turned my eyes towards Elda. She seemed to be having conflicting emotions passing through her mind. But seeing such conflict only made me more assured of the fact that my subtle control over her is working. Otherwise, with her default gentle nature, she would definitely not feel good at simply hurting another.

'Orpheus definitely went out of her way to make a species that won't harm or betray her again.'

Shaking off those thoughts, I focused on Nora's words.

"Then will a great war soon cover over this world?"

"I'm trying to prevent it, but as a single man, there is a limit to what I can do. But for the world to move forward in peace, I need to get closer to all the other rulers."

My words now made all three of them frown. Surprisingly, the question I was expecting came from Elda.

"Is that the reason you seem to spend a lot of time traveling around and meeting the other faction heads, especially all those women?"

I could easily catch the jealousy in her voice. Acting as if I could not see it, I spoke.

"Indeed, that's the reason. After all, it would be better to have a lot of good connections, especially with the future rulers. Being friendly with all of them would give me more credibility when I try to bring my findings forward."

Seeing the expressions on the three, I can tell that they weren't happy with my decision of trying to get close to the other girls. But my valid points of world destruction are keeping their jealousy in check. Hey, it's not my fault when they fall in love with me when I try to be friends with them, right?

Well, that at least is how the official story would go for my family and some others. This won't work on the ones that I courted on my own though...

"Even then, I don't like it."

Once again surprising me, my tsundere older sister came forward. This time, her hand caught me tighter for another reason, than support. I could feel the literal jealousy coursing through her from those words.

"Well, when responsibility is called into question, you have to do things that you won't want to. You of all people should understand that, Nora."

My words made her bite her lips. The remainder of her position as a general and future head of the Lionheart Ducy gives her a hint that even her in the future would have to take such actions that might hurt others.

"Just how close do you plan to be with them?"

Grace asked, her question going right to the mark.

"Just friends. Right now, I am already good friends with the demon prince Ron, both the princesses Marlene and Catherine. And you all know that Carmel is my senior sister, right? Plus, there is no need to speak of Olivia. The one I am trying to become friends with now is Sabrina."

I said, lightly enjoying the way in which their expressions kept changing at the girl's name I kept speaking. In the end, only silence remained in the room as the three of them seemed to go into their own thoughts.

"Would my friends be of use, big brother? Is that why you are going along with Nyla's whims?"

Elda asked, as I proudly saw a light cunning smile fill her face.

"Of course, they would all be very useful. And yes, that is one of the reasons."

I replied as I placed a kiss on her hair, which made her lightly giggle.

"So, a great danger is approaching, and we all need to be prepared, right?"

Nora spoke, her face now having the same thoughtful look that Grace is having. No doubt both of them are trying to create helpful plans for the future. And I, for one, would be more than happy to take their suggestions. None of these women are helpless or fools. Their input and help might even give me certain ideas that I might not even have thought of.

I have no interest in being the type that will try to hold the burden of all, not when I have intelligent and powerful women around me. The only drawback of this is that I have to be very careful about what I show them. If I show them too much, then suspicion might cover over me, which might soon lead to some secrets of mine getting out and if that happens, then, well there will be no then for me.....

"You say that this war is being used to increase the corruption energy polluting the air?"

Grace asked with her brows furrowed.

"Yes, that's one of their goals."

I replied.

"Then this would be hard to deal with."

Grace replied.

"I know. Why else would I be racking my head? Even the War Council won't be able to move unless something world-destroying might take place."

Hearing my reply, the room turned silent. All of them seemingly in deep thought, even Aira, who seems to have no idea about what the hell is going on, put on a cute thoughtful face to copy the rest of the women in the room. Though the prominent look on her face was jealousy towards Elda, who seems to be laying on my lap like it was her property. So it's a good thing that Grace keeps patting Aria's head to keep her calm.

"We don't have to solve all this now. For now, our main objective is to deal with this family. For the rest, we can all think about it together."

I said, after 5 minutes of silence in the room. This brought the girls' attention to me.

"I would be making my move with the DarkNight soon. I will let the three of you in on it. After all, I am tired of bearing all of this alone. Perhaps it's time I let you all in."

As I said my final words, my face became tired, my eyes heavy, as complex emotions took over my face. This quickly seemed to hurt the ones around me as all of them at the same time moved forward and hugged me tight. Even Aira came forward, and soon I was surrounded by my family in a tight and loving hug, their warmth filling me.

'And with this, the second phase of the family alliance is over. I better begin the third...'

...

'I guess this will start the chain reaction I need...'

I thought as I stood in the teleportation circle that was starting to take me to the room of Olivia, the very room I had trained her when she was my slave. Now it's more of our secret meeting room. By now, it's already night. It wasn't easy to get away from my family's calls after all. I even had an inkling that all three of them might even take me to bed.

Sadly, it wouldn't be sexual, purely warmth. Not like I can't make sexual happen. Keeping that aside, the main thing is I left the group saying that I had something important to do. They weren't happy to let me go but once I pulled in the card that I have something to settle, they let me go albeit reluctant.

But it was for the good, as all three of them needed some time to think, some time to digest all this.

What was more difficult was to leave behind Aria, who wanted to keep up with me. It's where all my energy went, to keep her with Grace. Thankfully, an hour of play and talk gave me some breathing room.

'But she is getting to be a pain in the ass.'

In the case of Aria, there are some things I can show her and some things I can't. If I were to use her, I can't show her my manipulative dangerous side. It would make it impossible to truly use her when Aria regains her memory. As for why I showed the forbidden relationship of me with my family? Well, that has its own perks...

Focusing on my thoughts, my vision cleared as I teleported to the room. My eyes landed on Olivia, who jumped into my embrace and kissed me. Seeing so, I held her, as my lips started to taste hers.

'Time to begin a new round, it seems...'