[Third Person's PoV]
Merlin was seen sitting on a couch with Yukime on his lap, surrounded by multiple bags of gold coins.
"It seems like my lap is your favorite place to have a seat," Merlin teased.
Instead of being embarrassed, Yukime wiggled her butt in his lap and brushed her tail past his cheek and chin. "It's rather comfy, I dare say," she said with a sultry tone.
Merlin took hold of her chin as they faced each other. "You better be careful of what you're starting. Once I start, there's no stopping."
Yukime didn't look away, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing her face closer. "That's perfect then, I didn't want you to stop in the first place."
They were so close they could feel each other's breath. As Yukime closed her eyes and brought her lips closer, she felt contact with something unexpected—Merlin's hand.
When she opened her eyes, she saw his amused expression and the back of his hand covering his mouth. On his palm was a tattoo of a mouth with its tongue out, and on the tongue, the word "Sorry" was tattooed.
Yukime pouted. "Why did you stop it?"
"Business before pleasure, sweetheart," Merlin said, grabbing her chin again. "And I just love teasing you; I want to see how far I can get away with it."
Yukime, still pouting, gave him a playful glare. "You're a sinful man."
"Thank you," Merlin replied, taking it as a compliment.
Yukime sighed as she leaned her head back on his chest. "We have already exchanged the counterfeit bills with actual money," she said, pulling out real bills from the union. "All that's left is to exchange the real bills, and the trust should completely collapse. I'm going to go and exchange it myself."
Merlin, his hands wrapped around Yukime, asked, "To have your final confrontation with Gettan?"
Yukime nodded. "It's time I finally close a chapter in my life and move forward."
Merlin petted her head and ears. "Then I wish you all the good luck in the world."
As he was petting her, he thought about the girls. 'Sherry should have already found the note.'
Yukime softly held his cheek and gave his other cheek a small kiss. "Thank you."
When she looked at Merlin, he didn't respond. His eyes were widened in shock. Confused, she turned to see a floating baby with a cold expression, spinning slowly with a baby bottle in her hands.
As the baby sucked on her milk, she continued to look at Merlin with cold eyes and an expression of disappointment.
"C-Celeste?" Merlin called out.
Merlin almost threw Yukime off but slowly picked her up and set her aside.
"W-Who is this?" Yukime asked in surprise.
Merlin held out his hand and took hold of Celeste, his expression awkward. "This… this is Celeste… my daughter."
"Your daughter!?" Yukime asked in astonishment.
Celeste gave Yukime a side-eye, sending a shiver down her spine.
As Merlin held her, he asked with concern, "How did you get here?"
Celeste continued to look at him coldly as she drank her milk, then looked away and pouted angrily.
"Oh right, I'm in disguise. Here, look, it's just daddy," Cid said, undoing his Merlin disguise.
As Cid held her, Celeste took one hand off her bottle and put it on his cheek. "Bah," she said.
"Sorry? Sorry for wha—"
*Smack*
Cid and Yukime looked surprised as Celeste smacked Cid across the face. She then gained an angry expression and started pulling Cid's face, releasing the bottle from her hand. "Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!"
'Here I was worried and sad since you haven't visited me for hours!'
"Baby, I'm so—"
"Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!"
'And when I was missing you the most, I somehow teleported to you and what did I find!'
"Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!! Bah! Bah! Bah!" Celeste shouted, pointing towards Yukime.
'I found you in the arms of this foxy lady cheating on mommy!! I know you're married to other women, but she isn't one of them!'
Celeste then had tears in her eyes as she let out little baby cries. "Bah bah bah," she said sadly, stopping pulling his face and looking down. 'I don't like it when you go away for a long time.'
Celeste pouted with tears pooling in her eyes.
Cid smiled understandingly as he stood up with her in his arms. 'Right, it appears she seems to have a case of separation anxiety.'
Cid rocked her in his arms and put his forehead to hers. 'I'm sorry, Celeste. I shouldn't be leaving you alone for so long. I hope you can forgive me.'
Celeste wrapped her baby arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. "Bah, bah," she said. 'Just don't do it again.'
Yukime watched the scene of Cid with his daughter with fierce eyes. 'Him being a father, and so caring, just made his appeal skyrocket. Oh my goodness gracious.'
Cid and Celeste continued their thought communication. 'How did you even teleport to me?'
'I don't really know, daddy. I just missed you a lot and felt like I really, really, really, really, really wanted to see you. And before I knew it, I was watching you snuggling with the fox woman.'
'I see,' Cid thought. 'I have to check what she's the Monarch of and her special title.'
Cid then turned to Yukime. "Well, it looks like we have to cut our meeting short today."
Yukime shook her head. "We were already done. And once again, thank you for everything."
She smiled at Celeste and said in a small, cute voice, "And it was a pleasure to meet you too, Lady Celeste."
Celeste gave her a look and scoffed before looking away, causing both Cid and Yukime to smile awkwardly at each other.
Cid gave Yukime a final nod before disappearing into his shadow.
...
Aurora was seen in Celeste room looking around frantically, "Where did she go!"
She was seen lifting up the entire bed up into the sky and looking under, while also looking under the pillows.
"How could I have lost her!? She was in my arms for crying out loud!"
"Celeste! Celeste my baby! Where are you!? Its time to sleep not play hide and go seek with mommy!"
When Cid appeared next to her with Celeste in his arms drinking her milk, Aurora let out the loudest sound of relief. She plopped down on the floor and held her chest.
"You found her, thank goodness" Aurora said with tears in her eyes.
Cid had an awkward smile as he rubbed Celeste little cheeks, "More like she found me"
[Third Person's PoV]
The next day…
All seven deadly sins were gathered in their meeting room, each wearing a depressed expression.
Epsilon sat in her chair, legs crossed, idly strumming a guitar with her head leaned back.
Delta and Zeta, unusually quiet, weren't arguing. Instead, they lay on the table with their heads down, too sad to care.
Eta rested her chin on the table with a pouty look, too upset to fall asleep, while Beta lay on the table drawing an exaggeratedly handsome face of Cid.
Gamma held her hat in her hand, rubbing it between her fingers. Alpha had a glass of whiskey with a ball of ice on the table, which she occasionally filled before drinking it all in one gulp. But due to Cid's blood running through her, it was immediately detoxified, causing her to grumble as she wasn't getting drunk.
Their sad episode was interrupted by the sound of a knock at the door.
"Come in," Alpha said without much enthusiasm.
Nu walked into the room with a clipboard in hand. "There is much that I have to report to everyone."
Alpha sighed. "Go ahead," she said, waving towards Nu before refilling her glass.
Nu looked a bit surprised by their state. "The Merchant Union is on the brink of collapse due to the counterfeit bills, while more and more people are coming to our bank to liquidate their bills. At this rate, it won't be long before we are considered bankrupt."
"It doesn't matter anymore…" Alpha said, downing her glass and slamming it on the table.
"Excuse me?" Nu asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"He is behind all of this. It's because of HIM that all of this is happening… He has forsaken us… we are no longer of any use to him."
Nu tilted her head, having no idea what Alpha was referring to.
"Look at us… He gave us everything: powers without limit, wisdom not of this world, and most importantly, his love. And yet it seems we have failed him—" Alpha's wallowing was interrupted by Nu.
"Umm, I'm not really sure what is going on, but there is still more for me to report. We have also discovered that Gettan, the de facto leader of the Merchant Union, is in cahoots with the cult. He was also planning to start a collapse of trust to destroy Mitsugoshi, but his plans haven't been put into action yet."
"Of course they haven't. These were made by our husband—" Alpha stopped mid-sentence, her brows furrowing in contemplation.
"Wait a minute," she muttered, causing the others to look at her in confusion. They all started to become aware that there was more to it, more to their husband's actions, which caused them to sit up and grow hopeful.
'Gettan, no, the whole cult is tied to the Merchant Union. Such a thing would be something our husband would already know after all; his eyes are everywhere. Nothing escapes him… so he was after the cult… but then why would he attack all of us—' Alpha's musing was stopped by the sound of another knock at the door.
Alpha grew confused as she detected Sherry at the other end of the door. "Come in, Sherry," Alpha said.
Sherry looked a bit out of breath as she waved a piece of paper around. "I found this note from… our husband…" Sherry blushed, saying it out loud. "I found it last night and spent the entire night deciphering it."
Alpha took it and looked at Sherry in confusion. "Found it where?"
"After we came to report to you, I went to change back into my lab coat when that piece of note fell out from my Shadow Garden outfit."
Alpha nodded her head before reading the note. Her eyes widened in shock before she slowly repeated what she had just read.
"Hello, wifeys. Your handsome husband here. Just wanted to say sorry for betraying you guys for a few days. I was working with a collaborator on making counterfeits to liquidate them and hoard all of it. They should all be in the place where Claire was kidnapped."
A large smile soon spread across all their faces. Alpha saw that they were about to cheer and celebrate, so she held out her hand to stop them. "Wait, there's more."
Hearing this, they turned towards her, listening intently to her every word.
"Now then, the reason I got a bit heavy-handed with you all is to show you that you are still weak. You are strong for this world, there is no denying that, and as your husband, I must say I am proud of how far you have all come."
They grew teary-eyed hearing this as Alpha continued.
"But it's not enough. It's not enough to contend with the monarchs and their subordinates. I can take them down, but knowing how lovely my wives are, I know they would want to help me. So I showed you all that you need to improve…"
"I see… so it was for our own good," Beta said with a loving smile.
"As you finish reading this letter, Bellion should appear to train you all. So good luck and work hard. Hugs and kisses, your husband," Alpha finished.
As she finished reading the letter, Alpha's shadow expanded, and out came Bellion.
Nu and Sherry, who watched everything, were shocked and in awe of Bellion's appearance since it was their first time seeing him, as Sherry stayed in her lab most of the time and Nu mostly operated in Midgard.
Alpha turned towards Bellion. "I hope you don't mind waiting for us to complete one final task before you train us?"
Bellion nodded his head towards her, and Alpha nodded back. She then turned towards everyone else and smiled. "Well, ladies, it appears we have some funds to gather."
They all smiled, nodded, and disappeared into their shadows, leaving Bellion with Nu and Sherry.
Nu just pointed towards the door. "I have things to take care of if you don't mind?"
Bellion only blinked at her before sighing and sinking into his shadow.
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GOT IT