Arpious of the Planes

"They're like puppets,"

"So what if they are like puppets?" I respond while raising my eyebrow and taking another sip of water.

"*sigh*... Whatever, let's just set up the trade route," Reyna says as I finish my glass of water and ask for another one.

"First of all, let me state something…."

"What?"

"We don't have merchants,"

"Huh? How is that possible?"

"Because we haven't done any business outside of our kingdom since you know… we're monsters and all,"

"Well… Then can you make some?"

"Of course-"

"Mommy, I can try," I hear Luna's voice come from the hallway beside us.

Reyna turns to look at the late teenager standing in the hallway, and a frown could be seen slowly creeping onto her face.

It was obvious she was unhappy with the word "mommy''.

When I turned to look at Luna, who was in a sweatshirt and short shorts, I saw Freya next to her, furrowing her eyebrows while glaring at Luna.

"Hey, I was here first," Freya says with a glare.

As soon as I heard the words come from Freya's mouth, I sighed in disappointment as I soon realized that they had changed, but their jealousy over me didn't change in the slightest despite them mending their relationship mostly.

"Huh? You're talking back to me now?"

"Huh? Of course, I am bitch-"

"Oi," I say, partially releasing my bloodlust, causing both of my daughters to freeze up into statues.

"You have more children?" Reyna asks while slightly raising her eyebrow.

"Look… If you keep acting like this, I'm gonna kick you out. You're acting more childish than my daughters, so stop… It's honestly embarrassing," I respond before reeling my bloodlust back in.

"Mommy! Listen to me first!"

"No! Me first!" My daughters argue against each other.

"Girls, stop… Look, Luna goes first since she spoke up first and stop calling me 'mommy,' you are all big girls now, so I believe you can 'mother'… okay?"

"Okay!" Luna says with a large smile.

"Okay…" Freya responds before letting Luna go first reluctantly.

"Okay, what did you want to say?" I ask Luna, who stepped up with a large smile on her face.

"I can become a merchant! We learned some things in the leadership class about selling items and different strategies!" Luna says with a smile as she ran up to me and leaned over my throne.

"N-no! I wanted to be mommy- Mothers merchant!" Freya slips up but quickly fixes her speech.

"How about you both be your mother's merchants?" Reyna suggests, causing both of my daughters to glare at her for some reason.

"Who is this old hag?" Luna asks, causing Reyna to turn into stone seemingly.

"Luna, watch your language," I respond while chuckling to myself a bit.

"Kid, I'm older than your mom, so you better have some respect-"

"Oh yeah, who is this old hag," Freya says as she steps to the other side of my throne.

If Reyna hadn't crumbled to dust before, it was guaranteed that she just did now after hearing my daughters batter her.

"D-did you even try to raise your daughters correctly?" Reyna asks as Freya kisses me on the cheek.

"Ummmm… They haven't even been alive for one year, so there is much to be taught… and so have I," I say while muttering the last part.

"Mother, can I please be your merchant. I want to explore outside this boring kingdom… pretty please," Luna begs with puppy dog eyes, and it seems Freya didn't want her to get ahead, so she immediately refuted.

"I-I can be a better merchant than her," Freya says.

Sparks began to fly in the throne room, but I quickly shut it down by raising my hand between their slowly closing faces.

"How about you both be merchants,"

"Huh? B-but I don't really want to work with her," Freya says, but it seems Luna had a different opinion.

"I don't mind," Luna says, quickly changing her annoyed expression.

"Oh, you don't?"

"I don't mind as long as I get to be a merchant… but I also want to fight, so please don't leave me out any wars," Luna says, acting much more mature than just a few seconds ago.

"This is how you should act all the time," I respond before taking glances at Reyna, who still seemed to have crumbled into dust and was swept away by the wind.

Let's see… This is actually pretty good. They can create a main merchant guild, and both will be the guild masters even though there might be some heavy disputes which I can settle by giving them some secretaries.

"Maids, where is Akio?" I ask all the 5 present maids standing at each entrance of each hallway that led to my throne room.

"He is currently hard at work at expanding the kingdom," An elven maid speaks up first.

"I see… Then once he finishes expanding the kingdom to a suitable size, tell him to bring his men and have them build small cities about as big as the kingdom currently in each region of the Mountain of Twilight.

And once he finishes, or if he finishes, tell him to continue expanding this main part of the kingdom. I will assign the roles once each city is done and has some starting workforce," I order my maids, who immediately followed my orders, walking down the main hallway as soon as they stopped bowing.

Tup Tup Tup

Their footsteps gradually grew dimmer, and once their positions were replaced with new maids and I received my new glass of water, I nodded my head at a final decision.

"Okay, you both will be the heads of a Merchant Guild. Since I want you girls to get experience first, though, you will go back to Reyna's kingdom and practice being a merchant there, and once you come back, you will have to buy your own building and hire your own people… okay?" I ask my daughters, who were clearly way too excited.

"Okay!" They both shout in excitement before running off to pack some of their favorite things.

"They're quite cute," Reyna says after recollecting her shattered mind.

"I know, right… Anyway, I guess we'll set up the trading routes… Maids! Bring out the planning table," I shout before the maids immediately brought the same table that I used to plan for the war against the Uxtan Kingdom.

After setting up the table fully and my maids bringing out two stools we both sat on, we began to plan the trading routes.

"This is quite nice. Is this what you used to plan for the war against the Uxtan Kingdom?" Reyna asks as I make small carriages fit for the table with [Weak Celestial Bone Creation].

"Indeed… This mountain is really nice for defending against any armies as the layers are extremely dense and unique, allowing us to take full advantage of them. At the same time, the opposing side receives the full disadvantage," I respond while placing the tiny carriages onto where my kingdom is on the map.

"I see… So what you're saying that not only is your kingdom's position a natural fortress, but the entire mountain is one?" Reyna says as she draws lines made from what seemed to be a black pen that she pulled out of her dress's breast pocket.

"Yep, though it wasn't intentional," I respond while observing Reyna, who drew lines across my map, which avoided most of the dangerous sections of the kingdom.

And then, once she hit outside the kingdom, she began to draw a direct line straight to the Uxtan Kingdom.

"You want to literally make a straight line, or are we are curving around the hills because some of them will be troublesome," I say.

"Nope, this will be all underground. I already told Dorna to start creating tunnels towards this place, and it should be done within… a few weeks or so…" Reyna says as she draws another line that sprouts directly from my castle.

"What is that?"

"Oh, this is so we can have direct contact without needing to go through everybody who is trying to trade within the tunnels," Reyna says before I place the tiny carriage figures on the lines.

"This is pretty good…." I say as I take a sip of water and open my status.

[Abyss Magic]

The sclera of my eyes turned a deep black which seemed to have gone on forever… just like the abyss…

"Huh? H-how the hell do you have [Abyss Magic]?" Reyna asks as soon as she feels a familiar yet eerie sensation.

But, I didn't hear Reyna talking at all as my attention was only focused on the panels in front of me.

[Select which type of Abyss Magic you would like to acquire]

[Power]

[Numbers]

[Foresight]

"Oh, so this is what my inner demon was talking about," I mutter to myself and take a glance at Reyna, who seemed to shiver in fear.

I knew it… This is why we shouldn't even be friends.