Last Man On Earth When There Is No Earth ?

Sector eighteen, Imar nine, Astragali city, Seven

"Whew, that's gonna leave a mark" and I'm happy it would. Socializing is still hard, but I guess I'm getting the hang of it. Little by little, one step at a time.

"You did well" as we retreated to a corner Lilia brought us two cups.

"Thanks" taking the one she handed me I sipped on it slowly.

"So, how was it on your side?"

"Nothing much, most of them wanted to know why you chose me as your bride" Lilia giggled.

"Ho~h, guess that's to be expected"

"Of course, people would be curious to know what the great lord Verta tastes are, why would a mythical beast go for a Zesionien when he's worshiped by Herara"

"I don't know about the great lord Verta" I said, glancing at the ghost girl by my side "but the reason Seven loves his beautiful wife should be easy to find out"

"Is that so" Lilia smiled, her cheeks flushing a little "now I'm curious to know as well"

"I will write a hundred pages report and present it to you once we get back"

"…pffft…" Lilia laughed, placing a hand over her mouth to mask her voice "you're exaggerating"

"You're right" I said, taking another sip "it will probably take a few days to put into words"

'Can you stop it already' the invisible girl standing beside me said as she yawned.

'What?'

'Hearing you flirt, I'm going to vomit'

'you feeling jealous?'

'Not really, it's just not the place nor the time'

It appears my freeloading little ghost friend is getting tired of me not being me. But what should I do? I'm slowly leaving he boundaries I put in place to protect myself and with that came a lot of change.

I can talk normally now, thought I still need to roleplay the ruler part. I'm no longer afraid to speak to girls, I even have the confidence to make moves. I love how Lilia reacts each time, she seems to like it when I praise her and I feel great satisfaction seeing her smile.

"I'm glad" Lilia began to say "I was afraid at first, that Seven was only with me because I forced him to"

"you mean that tradition you told me about?"

"Yeah, but once you asked me to marry you yourself, I was truly happy"

"Me too, I still find it hard to believe you actually agreed" honestly, I still do.

"Well, we were already together at that point… By the way, Seven" she went quite for a while, when she spoke again her voice was lowered a bit "you introduced me as your wife several times now…"

"Um… yeah… is there a problem with that?"

"… I was just wondering if it's okay for me to introduce you… to my parents"

I felt like my entire framework froze. That's right, until this point I only interacted with two of Lilia's relatives. Hank, who is her older brother and a big investor and financial adviser of Gorgola. The other one was an older sister of hers, the owner and commander of an private military company. If there is one thing I learned about both of them it would be that they don't like me at all. We tried to keep it professional most of the time, as far as they know Lilia was just a bodyguard I hired and the link connecting me with them. Now that I went around bragging about how beautiful the women I love is, they're bond to hear from someone any time soon.

I still have twenty six sisters and eight brothers to meet, not to mention her father and her mother. What if it turns out we don't get along? Would they try to persuade Lilia to leave me?

"… let's tell Hank first" all worries aside, I understand it's a responsibility I have to face sooner or later. There is no running away from this "we will hear his opinion, then when we are done building the city and things stabilize a little we can prepare for a proper wedding"

"… is that so…"

"Hm? Is something wrong?"

"well, I just want to tell mother about it" Lilia's eyes went down "it's been a while since the last time we spoke, I've been thinking I should make a call and… tell her about you while I'm at it…"

"You want to tell your mother…" usually the mother would be more supportive of her daughter's relationship… right?

'Don't get your hopes up' said Iris 'you're still an alien, she might not like the idea of not having grandchildren'

'yeah… but… we have to start somewhere, right?'

'Well, I doubt there would be any problems on her father's side at least. Even though it's Lilia's own decisions she ended up bringing perfect business opportunities to the family, basically she served her purpose better than he could ever imagine'

Lilia was the twenty third daughter in the Stoneheart household. Her father is married to thirty two females, the guy had build quite the harem for himself. That is a result of the Zesionien's inability to give birth more than once. Some of his wife's gave birth to twins and only one was lucky enough to have a second child.

Even though that the power advantage should be in the female's favor in Zesion, the males still do most of the work and control most of their father's assets. And just like with humans at some point the females of the family are used in political marriages to bring capable men -males- into the house.

Lilia was at the back of the line so she had some leeway, however sooner or later they would've chosen for her anyway and she would've been forced back home.

Typical noble house problems, alright. Well, whatever their plan for her was she somehow bumped into the prince of a really wealthy kingdom, he fell in love with her and the ended up together

The Stoneheart enterprise investments in Gorgola became a big chunk of their earnings, and that is only from what little Glassume we mined. As Iris said it, even if I'm an alien her father would probably be more than happy to seal the deal. As for her mother, I think she would be more concerned about her daughter's happiness.

"Lilia, about your mother… how about you ask her to come live with us?"

"eh? Why?"

"Well, she would want to be close to her daughter, right?"

"well…" Lilia went into deep thought, twirling her hair around her finger.

"I bet she was lonely when you left, am I right?"

"… I… I will try… when we return"

There must be a lot going on in a household such as the Stonehearts things I can't begin to comprehend. My life is already complicated as it is, but Lilia's problems are mine as well so all I can say is that I would try my best.

…..

When our little break ended we returned to our main task. Together with a small group following us we went around playing games one after the other.

I managed to gather some info while doing so, got to know more about the businesses ran around the eighteenth sector -though most of them are related to goods and products I understand nothing about- and slowly became familiar with the methods those people try to use to manipulate me.

Do I have a knack for politics or something? Obviously, no. I just activated my paranoia skill to its fullest potential, distracting every word that entered my ear, searching for double meanings and any context they might get used in, and that consumed a lot of mental energy.

Even Iris was getting tired , but she couldn't go to sleep yet. She was doing a good job backing me up, going around and eavesdropping on those speaking behind my back. Thanks to the amount of thunder I absorbed from the hole Verta left behind the radius in which she could move around extended considerably, now she could go as far as twenty meters away from me, however that doesn't seem enough for her when I and Lilia are going about our night activities.

The night was nearing it's end, me aside, the two girls were already exhausted and mr.Hootout came by to say goodbye. I was about to call it a night as well however a big fish caught up in my nest before I could pull out.

"I apologize for my late introduction, my name is Khamej Fasad, owner of this humble establishment"

The guy had waited until most of the crowd that followed me left before approaching me. It's a pig. A two legged fat dude with a pig head. The guy wasn't easy to look at, he was definitely not pleasant for the eye, maybe that's why he waited until the end to approach us.

"It is a place to be proud of, mr.Fasad, I had great time here" I respond, hoping my face wouldn't betray now of all times.

"I'm glad to have such an important figure visiting us, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed your stay" he bowed his head slightly, then as if he was done with the formalities he went to into the main topic "lord Seven, before you leave tonight how about we play a game?"