The last few days have been, to say the least, chaotic. I've tried to contact Laura several times, but so far she hasn’t responded, so I think she is being held by the failed cores as well. Maybe I should get a hold of Aaron to see if he knows anything, but I've been quite busy running Ceres's university in her absence.

Either I've gotten less of my memories back than I thought, or I just never did so much paperwork in my life. If Ceres isn’t pulling my leg about the paperwork, then I honestly don’t see how she has the time to lounge around my house with Belinda for hours every day.

Well, she sleeps but once a week, or so she claims, so maybe she leaves the paperwork for night time? Since I can't do the same, I had to recruit some help, and pulled a few of the bunnies into this madness. Misery loves company, after all.

Lilah had no issue telling her trainee bunnies it is part of their training, but I have to say that if I wasn’t in dire need of the help, and the fact they seem to enjoy it so much, I would have scolded her for taking advantage of them.

Working with them this closely over the last few days. I've gotten to know them better, if nothing else, and I have seen that Lilah really took a liking to Leveret… a bit too much so perhaps? He appears to be a boy just half her age, which makes it seem unwholesome despite them actually only being a few years apart.

“Leveret, I need you to deliver this form at the Mage’s Guild. Do you remember the way there?”

Leveret nods energically, causing his ears to flop back and forth before he speaks - “Yes! I'll deliver it!”

“Lilah will make sure Leveret doesn’t get lost!” –Says Lilah as she prepares to go with him.-

“He's done it half a dozen times over the last few day, I'm sure he'll do just fine on his own. Besides, he won’t even leave the dungeon grounds, so even if he did get lost he'll just need to transfer back.”

Lilah: “But…Lilah isn’t doing anything anyway…”

“Actually there is something I need to talk to you about, so I need you to stay.”

Leveret: “I’ll be back as soon as I can!” –He says enthusiastically, while Lilah’s eyes dart back and forth between the two of us, and her ears start to droop as he bolts out the door.-

“Lilah, what exactly…” –I start to say when Leveret slowly creeps back into the room, his ears hanging low, his nose twitching.- “Yes, was there a problem?” - I address him

Leveret: “I-I forgot the form…” –he averts my eyes as he picks the form and leaves again.-

Lilah: “See, Leveret needs Lilah!”

“He was excited, it was an honest mistake. Alright Leveret, take care and come straight back.”

Leveret's ears perk up a bit as he clasps the form to his chest, and hurries back out of the room. As Lilah’s eyes trail him on his way out of the room, I say. “What I was going to say is; what exactly is going on between you and Leveret?”

Lilah gets a bit fidgety as she says. “Lilah doesn’t know what Master means!”

“First you were treating him quite harshly making him do more work than the others, and with how you are treating him now… I have to say, I know I told you it was ok for you to find yourself a lover, but isn’t Leveret a bit young…?”

Lilah’s nervous face quickly vanishes only to be replaced with confusion, and after a few moments she says. “Master is mistaken! Lilah would never cheat on Master!”

“Lilah, I told you. Our relationship will never be like that, so it isn’t cheating… But I do think Leveret is just too young.”

Lilah: “Master doesn’t need to worry. Lilah would never do something like that with Leveret!” –She says sounding almost disgusted at the possibility, which is a sort of a relief, but on the other hand, a bit worrying since she hasn’t given up on me yet…-

“Then what is the deal between you?”

Lilah becomes flustered and fidgety again and says. “Master needn’t worry!” But that still doesn’t stop her from cheering up for a second as the door opens again, only to be clearly disappointed when it is Levi and Lily, returning from their own chores, and not Leveret.

I still don’t know what to make of Lilah’s reaction, but we still have a lot of paperwork to get through today, and now that Levi and Lily have returned, we get back to it.

Later in the evening I recruit Belinda to help me put together a thank you dinner for the bunnies.

After inserting the bird into the oven, there's nothing else to do, and since Belinda agrees to take it out in time for dinner, I make a quick trip over to Dyson’s dungeon, just to make sure Byson has things under control, which by the look of things, he does. Then, I drop by to check on the groups training on Ceres's dungeon.

Bandy: “Oh, its just you.” – she says with a sigh, then plops down next to a campfire her group has set up, on top of which they are cooking their dinner.

“Sorry to disappoint you…?” –I say while trying to figure out just which kind of creature they have roasting over the fire.-

Edmund: “It isn’t that. She is just upset that Ceres isn’t back yet, because it means no new monsters, and we have started to get quite bored with what Ceres has already added.”

“What about the crystal? Last I heard, you hadn’t made any progress towards finding it.”

Bandy: “She is bullshitting us with that imitation crystal. I don’t think it is even here. The floors rotate daily, so you never know what element the creatures you are going to run into belong to, but even so, we have searched every room thoroughly and still hadn't found anything.”

“I don’t think Ceres has any reason to lie to you, so if she says it’s here somewhere, I am sure it is.”

Poppy: “That’s what I keep telling them. There must be some special circumstances that open up the pathway. Maybe a certain element has to be on a certain floor to open the path, and we just haven’t given it enough time yet.”

Bandy: “I don’t even care anymore. When are we going to be able to get back to training for real?”

“I don’t want you out there while the failed cores are causing havoc, so let’s get that situation taken care of first. Then we'll see about turning you loose again.”

Belinda messages me to inform she's taking the bird out from the oven, so I quickly make sure noone needs anything, and go back to the house. They me enough to know I’m not much of an eater and just enjoy the company, so they have already started eating when I enter the dining room.

Belinda has Rory in her lap as I walk in, feeding her some of the softer foods. Both Lily and Levi look like they are enjoying themselves greatly as well, maybe because this is only the third or fourth time they have ever eaten anything. And then there's Lilah and Leveret…

Leveret is sitting there enjoying his food as much as Lily and Levi, but Lilah will scoop up something off her own plate and tell Leveret he has to try it shoving it in his mouth. My arrival seems to cause Lilah to scale it down, but throughout the meal there are still several more times I see her try to sneak Leveret a bite from her plate.

One advantage of Dyson and Ceres being out there trying to find divine relics rather than messing with the failed cores is that [Communication] hasn’t been blocked, so we are able to keep each other up to date about what is going on, and do just that after dinner, with me relaxing in the living room while Ceres and Dyson catch me up.

Unfortunately the first two divine relics they came across turned out to be fakes, but the good news is, the third one was authentic. We don’t know if the type of item has any relevance to how much power is held within, but they managed to boost Ceres's power with a vial of divine blood.

Even though the amount of power Ceres got from the blood was less than they had hoped for, they have several more leads before they need deal with the relics they're sure to need to fight for. Hopefully enough of the easy ones will prove real, so they won’t need to fight over the last ones.

Well, after speaking with Ceres and Dyson for a while. I close [Menu] and watch the bunnies and Belinda. Then something seems to click. Lily and Levi are making faces and playing with Rory while she sits in Belinda’s lap, but it is Lilah and Leveret that draw my attention.

Leveret is practically sitting in Lilah’s lap, leaning against her chest with Lilah rubbing her hands through his hair. I was mistaken for thinking the way Lilah was treating Leveret like a lover.

My eyes dart from the couch were Belinda is holding Rory and laughing while Lily and Levi make faces at her, back to the couch where Lilah and Leveret are, and I notice the similarities, then everything just clicks together…

“Lilah!” –I say loudly startling not only Lilah, but everyone else in the room as well.- “What did you do?!”

Lilah looks nervous as she notices Leveret and quickly makes him sit up. She then avoids eye contact but says. “Master, I don’t know what you mean…”

“Lily, Levi, and Leverert, why don’t you three take that extra food Belinda prepared to the others now. I am sure the dungeon has slowed down enough that they can enjoy it.”

They seem confused at first because of the sudden outburst, but then they nod and start to head back to the kitchen. Lilah starts to get up and follow after them, but I stop her. “No Lilah, you stay. I think Belinda and I need to have a word with you.”

Lilah’s ears droop and she avoids eye contact while dropping back onto the couch. Once the other bunnies are out of the room, I ask Lilah again. “What did you do?”

Belinda: “What is going on?”

“I thought Lilah was acting weird with Leveret, and I was right, but not the way I first thought. But I think I get it now.”

Lilah: “Lilah did as Master asked. Lilah summoned Levi, Lily, and Leveret for helping in Master and Ceres’s dungeons.”

“Lily and Levi maybe, but there was another reason you summoned Leveret.”

Lilah: “Lilah tried summoning Leveret as a normal beastkin, it isn’t her fault he ended up as a Lepuskin instead.”

“I am not talking about his race. I am talking about the way you are treating him. The reason you distanced yourself from him at the beginning was because you thought you failed. But now, regardless of his race you don’t think that anymore.”

Lilah fiddles with her hands while avoiding eye contact. “Lilah doesn’t know what Master means.”

“I am not saying it is wrong for you to want a child. I do still think you are a bit young, but it is more about how you went about it. That doesn’t even mentions the fact that he is half grown!”

Belinda: “Lilah, is that true?”

Lilah’s ears are drooping so low now that they are almost like Leveret's, but she suddenly gets angry and says. “It isn’t fair! Belinda had a baby with Master even though it shouldn’t have been possible, yet Lilah, who is always, always protecting Master’s heart, can’t, not even like this?!”

Belinda gets up and hugs her. Rory is still probably too young to understand what is going on, but it is hug time and she won't be left out, so she hugs Lilah too.

“Lilah…”

Belinda: “Two-Twelve, please go give Rory a bath, and ready her for bed. This is something Lilah and I should probably talk about without you getting in the way.”

“But shouldn’t I…” – Belinda cuts me off with a look as she rubs Lilah’s head.- “Alright…” –I take Rory upstairs.-

I give Rory a bath, get her ready for bed, and read her a story while she falls asleep, and still there are no signs of Belinda. I send Belinda a message asking her if everything is ok, but she quickly sends me one back telling me to stay here, and that she will be up as soon as she is done.

With nothing else to do I get ready for bed myself. Lilah has been with us almost since the beginning, and we have known how about her feelings for a while, but I really thought she had gotten her over it. Now the question is; what will we do with Leveret?

He doesn’t sees Lilah as a his mother, and in a few years might start getting the wrong impression about her in the same way Lilah did towards me, so the sooner we put a stop to it the better. He is going to think he did something wrong if Lilah starts treating him different all at once though…

Well, hopefully that is something else Belinda is covering in her talk with Lilah. I could use [Menu] to see what they are talking about, but maybe it is for the best that I don’t. It takes a few more hours before Belinda comes to bed, and she looks like she cried a bit.

I ask her if everything is alright, but she won’t tell me what she talked about with Lilah. She just gives me a light kiss and crawls into bed after saying that it has been taken care of. I don’t exactly know what she means by it, but she won’t answer any of my questions either, so there is nothing else to do but go to sleep.

The next morning when the bunnies come to give me a hand with the day’s paperwork, Lylah comes with them instead of Lilah. When I ask Lylah about Lilah, she just says she is busy, but later in the day when I go to the dungeon core room to check on things, Lila and the rest say that Belinda told her to take a few days off, so she is out.

Lilah is family, and even Belinda treats her as such, so I can’t see her kicking Lilah out or anything like that, but I do have to say it seems rather strange for Belinda to give Lilah a few days off right after their talk. Unfortunately I don’t have much time to figure out what is going on, exactly, because there is just so much paperwork to do.

By the time evening rolls around however I decide to ask Belinda what is going on with Lilah.

Belinda: “I told you I took care of it.”

“I try to get Lilah to take a break all the time, and even on her days off she doesn’t want to leave the dungeon unless it is to go train with us in Shima. Yet not only did you get her to take several days off in a row, but got her to do so outside the dungeon, as well?”

Belinda: “We had a long talk, and I know she is family, but her crush on you really crossed a line this time… She did not just summon Leveret with the intention of him being her child, but she focused on what a child between you two would be like.”

“So you what? Made her leave?”

Belinda: “Of course not!” - she looks shocked - “But like you said, even if you are not around, she is always there protecting your crystal, so in a way she is always by your side, and we let her crush go on for far too long. After talking for a good while, we both decided it was best that she takes just a few days away to think about things.”

“With everything that is going on, do you really think it is safe for her to be roaming the countryside alone?”

Belinda: “With the training she's gotten in Shima, she is easily as strong as Logan. Besides, she isn’t “roaming the countryside.” I took her to the capital. I hope spending a few days with Amy might give Lilah a chance to see there is more to life than just you and the dungeon.”

“Do you really think Amy is the right person to help Lilah right now?”

Belinda: “Amy is a lot of things, but she was always there to help me keep my head on straight when I was growing up, so I’m sure Lilah will be fine.”

“She got us both drunk, took our clothes off, and threw us in bed together long before we were even interested in one another.”

Belinda: “Well, before -you- were interested…”

“Maybe I should go get her.”

Belinda quickly comes over and sits down in my lap, and kisses me.

Belinda: “I love that you are worried about Lilah, but if you 'rescue' her now, do you really think that will help her in the long run?”

“I just think with everything we have on our plate right now, this headache that could have been put off for a while longer.”

Belinda: “You constantly go from one frying pan to the next, putting it off for so long is why we are in this mess to begin with.”

“I guess you are right, I am just worried about her, that’s all.”

Belinda: “I know.” –She says while rubbing my chest.- “And I know this isn’t going to help matters much, but I don’t think Lilah is the one you need to worry about.”

“What do you mean?”

Belinda: “Lilah’s reason for summoning Leveret the way she did was because she knew she wouldn’t be able to have a child with you, but she also didn’t want to be left behind… Apparently, Lylah has found a boyfriend, and their relationship has progressed very quickly…”

“I don’t mind the bunnies having relationships, but don’t you think Lylah is a bit young to have a relationship go that far? There is also the dungeon’s safety to consider… Are you certain Lilah wasn’t mistaken? Because Lylah worked with me all day today, and she didn’t mention a thing.”

Belinda: “She was quick to volunteer to help you after Lilah left, and was more than eager to take any of the paperwork to the Mage’s Guild. Lilah said he is one of the Mage’s Guild mages that frequents the dungeon.”

“If that is the case, we better have a talk with her. She knows better than to give any information about the dungeon, but we need to make sure she doesn’t give him preferential treatment while entering the dungeon, either.”

I start to send Lylah a message, but instead she quickly transfers into the room with a panicked look on her face.

Lylah: “Master! Tobes is under attack by monsters!”

Dyson’s PoV

After we secure our first divine relic (a vial with the blood of some ancient deity), Ceres uncorks it and drinks the golden liquid within it. From the looks of things, anything but a pleasant experience.

“Well? Did it work?”

Ceres: “As if eating Belphegor’s eye wasn’t bad enough, but to drink some random god’s blood as well? I’m turning into a cannibal… And the worst part is, I haven’t felt this alive in over a year.”

“Then it contained more power than the eye did?”

Ceres: “About the same? If we don’t find more of these items quickly, we won't make it in time.”

“There's a few more we can look for before we go after the ones guaranteed to require violence, but we should probably inform Two-Twelve on what is going on before he does something reckless again.”

Ceres: “You are right about that. He means well, but always finds the hardest way to do things.”

We open [Menu] and speak with Two-Twelve for a while. After that, we make plans for tomorrow and retire for the evening.

Now, a third party observer may think Desiree has gained quite a bit of influence over Angela since my rescue, considering the amazing passion, inhibition and creativity they've been showing during sex as of late (specially in the inn's bath and bed, but even by our campsite's fireside, with Ceres no more than a couple yards away), but that isn't really the case, though at first I thought it was them trying to make up for our time apart, but when I confront them about it, they look at me with confused expressions.

Angela: “Yes, we were worried sick about you, and are elated to have you back, but I don’t think we've done anything different… But if Master is displeased, we'll do whatever it takes to correct it.”

Desiree: “I've noticed the change as well, but it is Master who is acting different.” - she says

Angela seems nervous as she adds - “B-but Master, I like this you the most!”

“This me, uh? And what exactly is it you both think is different now?”

Both girls look at each other nervously, but it is Desiree that speaks. “Master has become afraid.”

Angela quickly jumps in to say. “Master isn’t afraid of anything!”

“Only a fool fears nothing, however there's not much I do fear.”

Desiree hesitates before speaking up - “The number of Master's fears increases almost daily nowadays, and while the parts of your mind where you keep them has always been blocked to me, some of them have been leaking out as of late.”

“I admit the situation with the failed cores has become more troubling then anticipated, but to claim that it scared me that much is too exaggerated." - I can't help but frown at my succubus’s words

Desiree: “When you punched Two-Twelve hard enough to kill a normal man, it wasn’t only because of anger that you did so, but fear. Fear of losing us, and anger at being helpless while we were in danger. That is what I feel.”

“I have put a lot of time, effort, and resources into the two of you, so it stands to reason I wouldn’t want to lose you."

Desiree: “And yet, both of us fall terribly short in all of those parameters when compared to your armor, yet you felt almost nothing about losing it.”

"My armor isn't going anywhere. I'll get it back as soon as the failures are dead. But I've spent most of my life looking for a new love, and I am not giving you up now that I've finally found the two of you,.." -A weight falls off my chest as I say so.-

"Master, I love you!" - cries Angela as she tries to bury her face into my chest.

It takes me a few moments to realize the truth of what I just said. Indeed, I do love them. The pain over my wife's loss is still there, but I am not looking for her in other women anymore. I can finally move on, and... I think she'd approve.

I look down at Angela and gently lift her chin so I can kiss her, then pull Desiree to kiss her as well. The bed of this simple inn is nowhere near sturdy enough to endure what comes next, so we are forced to teleport back home to the sturdiness of our bed.

We end the long night in the bath, with all of us resting together. Angela twirls her finger through the water while watching Desiree’s tail flick back and forth as she nibbles on my right earlobe.

“Hm.” –I comment to no one in particular while resting in the water that has already begun to cool due to how long we've been here. After checking over something in [Menu] I say.- “ I guess I’m finally ready to expand our family by one.”

"Master?" - Angela says looking up at me - "Do you have anyone already in mind, or will you talk with Two-Twelve about it?"

Desiree: "Ah, I think she should have wings. It has become something of a theme, hasn't it? Maybe a human-sized fairy? Your bed already has bat and swan wings, so butterfly or dragonfly wings may be a must by now..."

"I wasn't thinking in adding another woman." - I reply - "When [Menu] changed the way dungeon cores are born, I was quite troubled over who I'd like to be the mother of my child, but then the option was no longer available. Recently however I have noticed that there are times in which it has become available again, and this time I am no longer troubled over it… Wait, were you hoping for a new ‘sister’ to join our bed?”

"Ah-" - Angela is bright red, while Desiree's smirk speaks volumes on its own.

“Well it seems we have much to discuss, but first… Ceres has been asking for us for the past half hour, she's seen the state of the inn room, and worried we had been attacked, you know?”