Asmodeus closed his eyes, focused on the conversation with Albrecht, trying to sift through the useless information for anything he missed.

’What am I missing?!’

There was surely something important.

He just couldn’t quite put his finger on the issue or reason.

"Husband, what’s the matter?"

Nerim’s glossy chocolate skin shimmered under the brilliant sunlight as she leaned over the wooden hull, squishing her plump breasts flat against the hard wood. Her long pink hair was tied into two cute wavy pigtails, revealing the faint blue scales along her jawline and cheeks.

"It’s just the empire seems to be looking for something." He glanced at her and slid closer, placing a hand on her outstretched buttocks. "At first I thought it might be you they wanted to take back... but I was wrong."

"Tsk, don’t be like this."

Her hand slapped his away before she rolled into his chest, pressing her muscular back against his stomach.

She glanced up, peeking at him from below.

"Then, what do you think they wanted?"

Her warmth spread across his chest as her two soft bumps pressed against his thighs, squeezing slightly around him as she giggled.

"I think it’s something related to Velvet, Vinea, Levia and the others... I bet they told me once but... Ngh... have long forgotten."

Nerim quickly leaned back, her eyes shimmering faintly red for a moment before she whispered.

"Ah? Did you moan... ahahaha... honey, is my ass that comfortable?"

’Wait a minute!?’

The way she shook her ass, that subtle seductive scent that no other woman carried... it wasn’t Nerim right now, but Mei!

"Tsk!" He quickly seized her arms and held them tightly behind her back, folding her over the ship’s hull, her face dangling above the black sea. "Admit why you’re trying to seduce me, Mei or else I’ll get the Holy Empire to purify you!"

"Kyaaaaaaaa~ someone help me! MY husband is trying to—Mmmmph!?"

Asmodues grabbed her chin, closing her mouth with his palm. The softness of her lips pressed against his hand as she struggled desperately. Hot breath blew against the surface as he quickly snapped his fingertips.

Vwooom!

A purple barrier with crackling golden arcs formed in the air, wrapping around them, blocking all sound and vision and slowing time.

Before Mei could cause trouble, he quickly apprehended her.

"Now, speak to me properly or I’ll enjoy your body right here and now!"

"Ahhh~ please.... come on...." Mei swayed Nerim’s hips, raising her ass higher, teasing Asmodeus with her sultry voice.

"Damn bitch...."

With a smile on his face, Asmodeus raised his hand and slapped her ass with all his strength.

PAH!

"Agggu..!"

Though she liked to tease him, he knew that, unlike Nerim, Mei couldn’t endure pain!

The impact snapped through the barrier, sharp enough to make Mei’s teasing voice crack.

Nerim’s body jolted against the hull. Her fingers curled over the wood, legs tensing beneath her as the playful sway of her hips stopped at once.

Asmodeus leaned over her, keeping both of her wrists pinned behind her back.

"That was your warning."

"M-Meanie..." Mei hissed through Nerim’s lips, but the sultry act had already thinned. "You really hit me..."

"You borrowed my wife’s body to distract me during a military crisis."

"I was helping you... You’re the one that got hard over it, not me!"

"By rubbing her ass against me?"

"That was for morale."

He raised his hand again.

Mei stiffened.

"Wait, wait! Fine! I’ll talk!"

Asmodeus did not lower his hand immediately.

"Properly."

"Yes, properly!" Mei clicked her tongue, though her voice still carried Nerim’s sweetness. "But I happen to know something that he likely wants more than anything in the world!"

"Oh?"

His hand slowly lowered from the air, gently stroking the swollen flesh of her buttocks, gently kneading and caressing his mana into the wound as it faded from sight.

"Do tell me, Mei."

"Ahhn.... don’t lean beside my ears... stop whispering with that deep.... sexy voice..."

She squirmed in his arms, unable to escape or resist.

Asmodeus gave her ass another slow squeeze.

"Mei."

"Fine, fine..."

Her playful voice faded just enough for the real Mei to surface beneath Nerim’s face.

"The Human Emperor is not searching for Leviathan. In truth, he probably doesn’t even care about the people suffering! He’s an arrogant and heartless bastard. Though I know his greatest desire thanks to my human life..."

Asmodeus’s hand stopped.

"Then what is?"

"Dragons."

Asmodeus’s aura became unstable.

The sheer mention caused the barrier to shake.

"Dragon magic is special, you see, even to us Arbiters... it was something tricky and a reason we couldn’t just wipe out all humanity. Dragons created a magic that is not bound by the Creator’s rules. It slips between laws, ignores certain seals, and can wound things that divine, demonic and mortal magic cannot even touch."

He couldn’t help but doubt her words.

"No way!"

"Of course it’s true... Ein is one of the ones who fought a dragon and almost won... likely the mother of that brat Valena you know."

’....these two don’t get along.’

Because of his bond with Valena, Mei could feel her emotions whenever they were close together.

The same was true for Nerim.

"The Emperor is sealed?"

"Cursed and sealed," Mei whispered. "His body is a prison wrapped around a throne. He can command an empire, but he cannot escape himself. All because the stupid fool tried to control and steal the power of the gods for himself."

Asmodeus thought of Albrecht’s careful humility, Coco’s presence, and the animal masks were there when his wives were caught in the teleportation trap... So that means that Velvet was likely discovered back then.

’I am sure she told me though...’

He struggled to remember everything, but still...

Now he felt he should’ve paid more attention to her words back then.

’The Emperor isn’t going to let us go easily...’

"Coco reported Velvet."

"Mhm. She sensed enough during the attack to know your wife is connected to dragon blood or dragon power. But that is not all."

Mei glanced back at him, her red-tinted eyes curving with wicked amusement.

"The red dragon you stole from the dwarf? Valena? That dragon was on their target list for the longest time... why do you think that filthy Abyssal kept her in a Wyvern form?"

Asmodeus’s expression darkened as he thought about the possibility of Valena being marked or tracked somehow.

"For an Arbiter who abandoned her emotions, you know a lot..."

Mei’s smile twitched.

For once, she did not answer immediately.

The barrier hummed around them, purple and gold light rolling over Nerim’s chocolate skin while the world beyond moved like a slow painting. The fleet remained frozen in faint motion, sails half-snapping, sailors half-turning, waves hanging in black curves beyond the hull.

"Abandoned is such a cruel word," Mei said at last. "I misplaced them."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No." Her lips curved faintly. "But I enjoy lying."

Asmodeus’s grip tightened around her wrists.

"Mei."

"Fine~ don’t hit me again!" Her voice lost its teasing, sultry edge. "You’ve made me remember everything... from the moment we met in that disgusting place, and you resisted my charm, somehow I felt you... your past... and that awakened my sealed memories and feelings, from the time I was just a poor, slum girl named Mei."

Asmodeus loosened his grip slightly.

"Your memories returned because of me?"

"Not all at once." Mei turned her face enough to glance at him from the corner of Nerim’s eye. "At first, it was like hearing someone cry behind a locked door.

Her lips twisted as she took the momentary laxity in his grip to cling to his chest.

"Then you kept touching places inside me that should have been dead."

"Mei."

He worried about the fact that he killed her.

"Not like that, idiot." She clicked her tongue. "Your mana and the way you stubbornly rejected my seduction just kept... awakening me. That disgusting refusal to break when an Arbiter pushed you down and almost..."

Her cheeks flushed red, as the blue scales of Nerim shone bright blue... a sign of her sexual arousal. "Ahem! A-Anyway... something about you scraped against the seal over my memories until cracks formed."

Asmodeus stared at her for a moment, then slowly released her other wrist.

Mei remained still, staring up at him without moving. She remained against his chest, still wearing Nerim’s body, but the weight of her voice no longer belonged to either of them.

He could almost see her vivid red hair and the way she liked to bounce slightly.

"I remembered being human first."

His hand paused against her waist.

"Not the important things. Just... small, useless things."

Mei gave a quiet laugh.

"The taste of cheap soup with barely any seasoning... and the smell of mould and damp. A thin blanket barely able to keep out the cold and a small hand reaching for mine, then vanishing before I could see whose it was."

Asmodeus said nothing while listening as she tilted her head back, peeking up at him with Nerim’s eyes stained faintly red.

"It was annoying."

"What, to remember things?"

"No... regaining the feelings... feelings I’d long forgotten, even when I was a human."

Her lips twisted into a cute shape.

"But then you appeared and refused to break, refused to kneel, refused to look at me like some perfect thing sent from above... And suddenly, I was a woman again." Mei buried her face against his chest.

"So don’t ask me why I know things, Asmodeus. Only ask what you want... because I’ll tell you anything and everything. Chuu~"

With one last kiss, the red faded from her eyes, and Nerim slowly awoke from her temporary sleep.

He wanted to spank her again because she’d left him in a strange mood.

’Damn it... coming and going as she pleases...’