Chapter 180 - #179 Aftermath (1/2)

Akashi retained his changed form for now since it gave him only benefits. When the hugging period ended, Akashi turned at Esdeath who was the entire time quietly standing behind him.

”You probably already realized that Taeko is the one I told you about, right?” Akashi asked while wrapping his arm around Taeko's hɨps and pulling her close to him.

”I managed to get that much from the way she is looking at me.” Esdeath replied with a smile.

”Girls, let's go ahead” Mera said while pushing both Poney and Kurome's back.

”Huh? Why?” Both turned at her with a confused expression but Mera ignored them, only winking at Akashi and he in return nodded his head.

When they left, Akashi once again turned his attention to Esdeath.

”Esdeath, I will be blunt” Akashi said with a serious expression which made Esdeath's smile disappear too.

”You said that you like me however you can't bear to share me. I admit that I also like you despite you behaving a bit...strangely, occasionally. We had a deal and I am the winner which means that I can do whatever I want so I am giving you a choice...You can either accept the fact of ”sharing” me with Taeko or we will simply be friends. You can decide if you want to help me with my future plans or not but you can't interfere with them.” Akashi said bluntly.

”...I indeed lost. I like you and since you also like me, why remain friends? I can try to cope with the feeling of ”sharing” you” Esdeath closed her eyes, recalling their talk before they sealed the deal, and then she opened them, saying this with a stoic expression.

'Well, that's good that she still wants to try it because I am not sure what I would do if she wanted to remain friends...I would have never gained control over her actions.' Akashi thought after hearing her words. He knew that his fight still wasn't over if he wants Esdeath to really behave. She isn't someone who would quiver in front of superior strength.

”Anyway, Taeko is your name, right? Why are you fine with sharing Akashi? Are you perhaps not confident in keeping his attention only on you?” Esdeath asked with a provocative smile.

When Akashi heard her, he frowned but Taeko stepped in front of him before he could say anything.

”...I am but one woman. If you will keep those ideas even after spending a night with him, I am more than willing to leave him to you all alone” Taeko said with a serious expression, making Akashi slightly embarrassed as he began scratching his cheek with his sharp index finger.

”?” Esdeath was slightly confused by Taeko's words and even more by her confidence, giving Esdeath another chance to gain Akashi for herself all alone which made her feel quite suspicious.

She knew what Taeko's words meant, she has done her research and she thought that quelling male's ŀust was anything but a hard task, however, she was still unaware that Akashi wasn't as other men. Whenever he was in bed with Taeko, they kept going for hours until Taeko felt too tired and sore to continue. Akashi's constitution gave him also disadvantages like a large appetite and also harder suppressing his ŀust.

Akashi also felt a bit guilty since nights with Taeko were indeed getting harder and harder for her, he was sometimes even pretending to be fully satisfied just to make her rest for a longer time, however unknown to him, Taeko saw through his lies, she knew about it which in return made her love him even more but it also made her feel upset how he was keeping it away from her.

”I have no idea what gives you such confidence but I like it. You are daring, I will give you that, Taeko. I hope you won't go against your words later.” Esdeath accepted this challenge since she had nothing to lose, she no longer wanted to be just friends with Akashi. If it was before their first kiss, she might hesitate a bit but ever since their first kiss, she became more obsessive with him.

”*Hey, what about my opinion? Why do you have such confidence in me?*” Akashi whispered to Taeko. Although what Taeko was doing was playing right into his cards, he still had to ask out of curiosity.

”*I know how much you restrained yourself during our times alone. Please vent it all out on her*” Taeko turned her back to Esdeath and whispered to Akashi with a devilish cold smile.

'?!' Akashi was actually caught off guard when he saw this smile since it was his first time seeing Taeko with such a sadistic smile.

”Heh, I guess I couldn't hide it from you in the end.” Akashi chuckled and said with a slightly guilty smile.

”I am not upset or anything” Taeko just said shortly while ċȧrėssing his cheek with a gentle look in her eyes.

”Ehm!” Esdeath was feeling left out when those two started acting all lovey-dovey so she interrupted them.

”Alright, let's go back to the Empire” Akashi smiled at Taeko before turning around with a more serious expression.

Before they left, Akashi made all the magma disappear from the cracks in the ground however he couldn't fix the damage done to the terrain so he just left it to the nature to fix herself up.

Akashi put on the cloak with a hood to hide his appearance. He wanted to keep this appearance as help in the persuasion of some certain people.

When they arrived home, he actually never showed his appearance to anyone and just found out where he is supposed to meet Night Raid. They were done with their job for probably a whole week and in case they managed to do everything as he demanded, then he shouldn't let them wait any longer, he sent a special bird with a message.

After a few hours of relaxing, most of Esdeath's energy was already recovered and it was at that time the same bird Akashi sent out, flew back to them together with a reply from the Night Raid.

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---At night, the forest a few kilometers away from the Capital---

”Finally, I already started thinking that he ditched us.” Mine complained while their group was waiting for Akashi to arrive.

”He wouldn't do that, he must have had reasons for not replying to us for so long...” Najenda was the only one to reply to Mine's complaints.

”What the hell are you planning, Night Raid?!” Mez growled at them with her hands and legs tied up.

Everyone ignored Mez but at least she was more normal than her partner, Suzuka, who was tied up in very ŀėwd way.

”Ahh~” As if that wasn't enough, Suzuka was even occasionally releasing ŀėwd mȯȧns which caused most of the male members to look in opposite direction.