Chapter 108: Should’ve Become a Professional Husband

Chapter 108. I Should’ve Become a Professional Husband

I ate well. Very well.

Lily apparently noticed my enthusiasm because she immediately placed another generous portion of meat onto my plate.

I looked at her. She smiled. I smiled back.

Then Ariel leaned over and refilled my drink before I’d even realized my glass was nearly empty.

This was the life.

Forget being a Royal Magus. Forget being one of the Five Heroes. Forget saving the kingdom from the Dark Lord. I should have retired years ago and become a professional husband.

Excellent benefits. Beautiful wives. Unlimited affection. Occasional disciplinary hearings conducted by five wives, but honestly, every occupation had its disadvantages.

I was halfway through another piece of meat when Nia finally spoke.

“Rey…”

I glanced toward her.

“You really shouldn’t push yourself so hard enchanting those accessories. We’ve already got more than enough.”

I hummed while chewing.

“Besides, if we put too many enchanted accessories on the market at once, their prices might drop.” She tapped her finger against the table thoughtfully. “People will start thinking they’re ordinary products instead of something rare.”

Right. Market saturation.

I hadn’t actually considered that part because, somewhere around the fifth hour, I’d stopped thinking about jewelry as merchandise and started treating every accessory as another miserable stepping stone toward my skill evolution.

Which, in hindsight, was probably not how a responsible businessman should approach production.

Liora turned toward Nia. “How many did he make?”

Nia hesitated. “Uh… maybe around fifty?”

“Sixty-eight,” I corrected casually.

Nia slowly turned toward me. “What?”

“Sixty-eight.”

Her fox ears shot upright. “Rey!”

I blinked.

“You turned almost every accessory I brought you into an enchanted one?!”

I nodded.

She stared at me as though I’d just confessed to eating the kingdom’s entire gold reserve for breakfast.

To be fair, sixty-eight enchanted accessories in eight hours was a rather absurd production rate for a single magus. Especially considering that each one required a properly stabilized enchantment.

Nia rubbed her forehead. “I was planning to sell them gradually, but I didn’t expect you to finish everything today!”

“Well, good news. You have plenty of inventory now.”

“That’s not the point!”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry. I won’t be doing that anymore.”

That made her pause.

“Really?”

“Really. I already got what I wanted.”

And what a beautiful reward it was.

[Arcane Artifact Creation]

Just remembering that notification made my exhausted brain experience a tiny burst of happiness.

Sixty-eight accessories. Eight hours of magical overtime. A truly unreasonable amount of mental suffering. All worth it.

Liora narrowed her eyes. “Then you’ll get some proper rest tonight.”

I took another bite. “Mmm. Yeah, I guess.”

Seris immediately looked at me. “That’s not convincing.”

Damn. My wives were getting disturbingly good at detecting my bullshit.

I swallowed. “Well, I still need to do one or two things in my study.”

“Rey…” Liora warned.

“Paperwork,” I interrupted quickly. “Only paperwork. I won’t use my power or cast any spells. I promise.”

Five pairs of eyes examined me.

Okay… Was this what being a suspicious criminal felt like during interrogation?

Actually, no.

Criminals usually had fewer beautiful women staring at them with this much disappointment.

Ariel gently set down her glass. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No.” My answer came a little faster than intended. I softened my expression. “Tomorrow, we need to move. The faster I reach Lumenford, the better.”

I couldn’t afford to waste an entire morning organizing everything I should have prepared tonight.

There was also the matter of what I intended to do once I reached the Holy City.

“I promise I won’t stay up late.”

I gave them the most innocent smile I could manage. The sort of smile that said I was a perfectly responsible husband who would never dream of sacrificing sleep for magical research.

Liora didn’t look impressed.

Neither did Seris.

Nia’s tail swished suspiciously.

Lily simply sighed.

Well. I’d tried.

I returned my attention to dinner before anyone could demand that I sign a legally binding bedtime agreement.

Besides, I really was hungry.

The meat was even better now that I could appreciate it without feeling like my soul was trying to escape through my ears.

Unfortunately, while my mouth enjoyed dinner, my mind was already wandering somewhere considerably darker.

The Maledict Sovereign Crystal.

I could finally begin considering how to use its properties instead of merely sealing it away.

The possibilities were fascinating.

Could I create an artifact capable of corrupting the Light Temple’s Holy Relic?

Not simply damaging it. That would be boring. Any sufficiently powerful attack could damage an artifact under the right circumstances.

But corruption?

Changing something considered sacred into something that violated the very principles it was supposed to represent?

Oh… That was interesting.

Especially when the Temple had spent generations insisting that Holy Relics were incorruptible.

Imagine the consequences.

The Light Temple publicly declaring that its sacred artifacts could never be corrupted, only for one of those artifacts to begin displaying unmistakable signs of Dark Lord contamination. The panic. The accusations. The desperate explanations. The priests scrambling to decide whether their sacred object had betrayed them or whether their doctrine had been wrong all along.

Heh.

I nearly smiled into my drink.

Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to assume the process would be easy.

The Maledict Sovereign Crystal was dangerous precisely because its corruption didn’t behave like ordinary elemental mana. Even the Radiant Cognition Prism had undergone an unpredictable transformation after absorbing part of its power. And that artifact had originally been SSS-rank.

If I handled the crystal carelessly, I could destroy the material, ruin my experiment, or accidentally contaminate something I had absolutely no intention of contaminating.

Such as myself. Or my mansion. Or the entire damn neighborhood.

That would make for an awkward conversation with the King.

‘Your Majesty, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my experiment worked. The bad news is that there’s now a forbidden dungeon beneath my estate.’

No, thank you.

I would need proper containment, controlled samples, and several preliminary tests before attempting anything involving the Holy Relic.

Still… That much power. That much potential.

I could almost feel my researcher’s instincts sharpening despite my exhaustion.

What if I could create something even better?

Something that didn’t merely corrupt the Holy Relic but exposed the Temple’s hypocrisy in front of thousands of witnesses?

Something that turned their own sacred authority against them?

The thought was delicious.

Probably more delicious than the monster meat.

And that was saying something.

“Rey?”

I blinked.

Lily was looking at me.

“Hmm?”

“You’re smiling strangely again.”

I immediately returned to eating. “Good food.”

She glanced at my plate. Then at my face. “Uh-huh.”

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!

Thank you for the Magic Castle, Bry35!

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