Hysilens was completely stunned.
It had only been ten short minutes since she last saw Cipher, so how had she already gotten together with Lucian?
And Lucian as well—couldn't he have endured for just a little longer?
At the very least, until she arrived and caught them red-handed!
For a brief moment, Hysilens even began wondering whether the two of them had somehow secretly been involved long before this.
"Huh? What d'you mean by stealing your man? You're awful! Lucian and I are totally in love, completely legit!"
Cipher stepped out from behind Aglaea and declared confidently while deliberately glancing toward Hysilens's chest. After noticing that they were roughly the same size, she immediately puffed out her own chest even more proudly, as though refusing to lose in such a strange competition.
"In your dreams, Lucian's yours! In my dreams, Lucian's mine! I haven't even called you out for stealing him yet! C'mon, let's be reasonable here!"
Cipher continued speaking with complete confidence, her expression utterly righteous from beginning to end, as though she genuinely believed every single word she was saying without the slightest doubt.
Surprisingly enough, her words actually did sound somewhat reasonable, leaving Hysilens momentarily unable to find any proper way to refute her.
It couldn't be helped.
Lucian was the one who made the choice, and in Hysilens' eyes, his choice was no different from an absolute decree that nobody could casually question.
Besides, each of his women had their own separate life and relationship with him that did not interfere with the others, so she truly had no grounds to accuse Cipher of becoming his woman, or rather, the sixth one.
Strictly speaking, Hysilens herself was merely the fifth among the women around Lucian that she currently knew of.
"Hmph, alright then. Let's be reasonable."
Hysilens let out a soft snort and replied in a tone that revealed neither anger nor joy before slowly stepping forward with graceful, unhurried movements.
Ripples of water shimmered faintly around her slender body as she entered the workshop. Her long hair swayed gently behind her while flowing currents of water quietly followed at her side like obedient spirits, giving her an almost dreamlike and ethereal presence.
Completely ignoring Aglaea, who stood nearby with obvious interest while quietly watching the spectacle unfold before her eyes, Hysilens walked straight toward Cipher step by step until the two of them finally stood directly before one another at close range.
In that instant, the atmosphere between them instantly became somewhat subtle.
"Since things have come to this, I won't say much more. Lucian chose you, and I will naturally respect that."
As soon as Cipher heard Hysilens's words, she immediately smiled and nodded without the slightest hesitation.
"Mm-hmm, you're pretty sensible."
Seeing Cipher look so pleased with herself, Hysilens narrowed her eyes slightly before continuing in an even calmer tone.
"However, since you became his woman after me, that makes me your big sister. From now on, you must listen to me."
At that, Cipher's smile instantly stiffened the moment she heard those words, and the cheerful expression on her face immediately disappeared, replaced by obvious displeasure and unwillingness.
"Why?! Lucian and I obviously have the best relationship here! I should be the big sis! C'mon, hurry up and call me big sis already! Lemme hear it!"
"Heh! What ridiculous nonsense!" Hysilens sneered coldly with complete disdain written across her face. "Lucian and I are obviously the closest to each other. We stayed together day and night for a full hundred years without ever separating! What about you?"
"I..."
Cipher's expression instantly froze.
Only then did she suddenly remember that she had only lived together with Lucian for merely ten years, which was literally ten times less than Hysilens!
No matter how she thought about it, there really was no way for her to compare with that terrifying amount of time.
Even so, she was obviously not the kind of person who would willingly surrender so easily just because of something like this. Since things had already reached this point, she was completely determined to fight for the position of big sister no matter what happened today.
Cipher: "S-So what if you've been together longer? Lucian still treats me insanely well! He saved my life, took me in, and even cooks delicious food for me every single day."
Hysilens: "We were together for a hundred years."
Cipher: "I-I even bathe with him every single day, too!"
Hysilens: "We were together for a hundred years."
Cipher: "He touches me every day, too! He especially loves my ears and tail the most, and he even likes my butt and thighs!"
Hysilens: "We were together for a hundred years."
Cipher: "He even transformed Dolos just for me, turning my hometown into a prosperous, beautiful, lively place!"
Hysilens: "A hundred years."
Cipher: "He can't even stay away from me for a single minute! Every day, he keeps sticking to me nonstop—I can't get him off me even if I wanna!"
Hysilens: "A hundred years."
Cipher: "I've also got tons and tons of sex tricks! I can keep him totally satisfied for an entire night without repeating a single move!"
Hysilens: "One! Hundred! Years!"
At the mention of 'sex tricks,' Hysilens practically ground those three words out through clenched teeth, her beautiful face flushing visibly red with embarrassment and irritation.
Wasn't it just having more variety?
It wasn't like she couldn't learn those things herself.
In fact, starting today, she decided that she would properly study all kinds of 'sex tricks,' so that when Lucian finally returned later, they would see who actually had more tricks and experience.
Cipher was likewise pushed to the brink by Hysilens's shameless and repeated emphasis on 'a hundred years,' the corner of her eye twitching faintly every time those words were brought up again.
Needless to say, it could be said that neither of them truly gained any advantage in this exchange.
Meanwhile, Aglaea sat leisurely off to the side, somehow having acquired a handful of sunflower seeds at some point, casually cracking them open while watching the drama unfold before her with obvious interest.
Still, even she had to admit that the current situation was somewhat absurd when she seriously thought about it.
One was the Demigod of Ocean Hysilens, while the other was the Demigod of Trickery Cipher.
Both were normally lofty figures who stood high above countless people, beings who would usually be treated with reverence and awe wherever they went, yet now they were actually arguing fiercely over the favor and affection of a single man.
However, the most important point was that the man himself wasn't even here, so considering that the very man they were competing over wasn't present at all, what exactly were they even fighting so intensely for?
Regardless, it was undeniable that the drama unfolding right in front of her was genuinely entertaining to watch.
"What are you two standing around for?" Aglaea urged them on from the side, her tone carrying obvious amusement. "Keep going. I want to see blood flow like a river."
Cipher and Hysilens immediately stopped quarreling, turned simultaneously to look at Aglaea, and then complained in perfect unison:
""Seamstress/Golden Trout, all you're doing is sitting there watching the show?!""
If it were the previous, inhuman Aglaea, she would definitely have stepped in to mediate the conflict before it escalated any further, but now that she possessed humanity and emotions of her own, she was actually sitting there enjoying the spectacle instead.
Hearing their perfectly synchronized question, Aglaea could not help but smile faintly.
"Before this, I was genuinely worried that internal conflict among the Chrysos Heirs would damage our relationships and negatively affect our salvation effort, but now that there's an invincible domain protecting us, I don't feel nearly as pressured anymore."
Aglaea lightly crossed her arms as the corners of her lips curled upward in amusement.
"Besides, watching Mr. Lucian's 'wings' get tangled together like this is actually quite interesting."
In the end, after hearing her teasing words, neither Cipher nor Hysilens felt like continuing the quarrel any further.
Besides, Lucian himself was not even here right now, so arguing with each other at this moment was ultimately meaningless. If they truly wanted to settle things, then they would simply wait until he returned.
"Hmph, when Lucian gets here, we'll settle who's actually the winner!" Cipher declared with a dissatisfied pout, folding her arms across her chest. "And when that happens, I'll definitely make you obediently call me big sis."
"I'll be waiting," Hysilens responded calmly while maintaining her composed expression. "I just hope you won't shamelessly go back on your word after losing later."
"Tch, then let's make a bet, with the seamstress as the witness!" Cipher clicked her tongue before narrowing her eyes slightly. "The loser becomes the little sis, and from then on, they've gotta respectfully call the other person big sis every single time they meet."
"Agreed."
Just like that, the two demigods privately settled their wager on the spot, with Aglaea, the Demigod of Romance, personally serving as the witness between them.
*Buzz—*
Just as the wager had been finalized, the space beside Cipher suddenly distorted and rippled, before a narrow crack quietly opened in midair.
A spirithief resembling a large purple grape then cautiously slipped out from within the crack. Its head looked like a plump purple grape, while its body resembled an even larger grape attached beneath it, making the entire creature appear both strange and oddly comical.
Needless to say, it was none other than Zagreus in the form of the Spirithief Bartholos.
"Lady Boss, I just went to Dolos! Guess what I... saw?"
Before even fully emerging from the spatial crack, Zagreus had already impatiently started bragging about their discovery to Cipher, but the moment they noticed the two other terrifying big shots standing nearby, their voice abruptly stopped.
In the next instant, they shrank back in fright and hurriedly hid behind Cipher without another word.
"Boss, did you get caught? Want me to save you?"
Zagreus lowered their voice and whispered cautiously, their strange face carrying an obvious trace of vigilance.
In their eyes, the Lady Goldweaver Aglaea and the Knight Commander Hysilens were definitely not existences that ordinary people could afford to provoke so casually.
"Caught? I'm a demigod blessed by Lucian now—who could even catch me?" Cipher proudly declared, immediately puffing up her chest, her voice full of confidence and smugness. "Oh, right, lemme tell you this. In my dream, Lucian saved you, so you'd better remember to pay him back properly later."
"Saved me? Repay him?" Zagreus scratched their head in confusion, clearly unable to understand the situation at all. "But boss, I don't even know him—why would I need to repay him?"
*Zing!*
Suddenly, at the exact moment those words left their mouths, Zagreus's entire body began to glow with a strange silver radiance, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
A few moments later, when the dazzling light gradually faded away, a black humanoid figure appeared before the three of them, their face twisted into a strange mixture of smiling and crying, looking eerie, distorted, and deeply unsettling.
In an instant, the surrounding atmosphere became somewhat odd.
Seeing that figure, Aglaea and Hysilens immediately recognized them as the Trickery Titan, Zagreus, whom Cipher had once successfully captured together with the help of three hundred rogues and Aglaea herself in the past.
More importantly, what attracted everyone's attention the most at this moment was the glowing silver-colored Coreflame on Zagreus's chest. It was gradually dimming as it slowly merged into their body little by little, causing the aura surrounding them to become increasingly mysterious and difficult to read.
"Oh? It's the silver Coreflame of Trickery! Lucian must've copied the original one and given it to Zagreus!" Cipher clapped her hands together as realization suddenly dawned on her face, her eyes immediately lighting up. "I knew it! He loves me the most, even upgrading my sidekick in real life!"
Her tone was incomparably proud, as though she had just received some kind of special favor.
Aside from Cipher, both Aglaea and Hysilens also quickly arrived at the same conclusion: only Lucian could have possessed such a method and such power.
"Hey, there's a saying, right? 'Love me, love my dog'—that's how it goes, yeah?"
Cipher turned toward Hysilens with a smug grin plastered across her face, clearly quite pleased with herself.
Seeing Cipher's unbearably smug expression, Hysilens immediately snorted in disdain.
"Hmph, that's nothing special. My Sea Siren Kingdom and my mother, Phagousa, are also results of Lucian's 'love me, love my dog.'"
"Hmph, so what?" Cipher placed her hands proudly on her hips and turned her head away with a huff. "Maybe my hometown, Dolos, showed up too. I'm gonna head back and check!"
As her words fell, Zagreus finally managed to come back to their senses from the overwhelming shock. Only then did they realize that they were truly alive once again, with their body and strength fully restored to their peak state, sustained not by her lies of Trickery, but by the silver Coreflame now burning steadily within them.
What Lucian?
What copying?
What kind of unbelievable encounter had their lady boss gone through this time?
Countless questions continuously filled Zagreus's mind one after another, leaving their thoughts in complete confusion.
However, just as they were still trying to process everything, Zagreus suddenly froze after remembering the true reason they had rushed over in the first place.
"Oh, right—Dolos! Lady Boss, that's what I came to tell you! Dolos has reappeared! And there are so many people there!"
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[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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