Coal was rich. It made sense. He lived for thousands of years. While he didn't do as much plundering as other dragons due to his role as the Golden Fleece's guardian, he still managed to amass a substantial collection of treasures. It only took me a day to gather everything with Hole's help, securing all the treasure Coal happily gave me for freeing him from Perfected State. He didn't so much as cast a forlorn glance at the treasure as we transported it, far too happy to just fly around the manor while I moved everything, uncaring about his former wealth. Wealth that now belonged to the House of Abaddon, to me. Evidently, being trapped in a Sacred Gear while idiots abused your power for millenia had a way of changing your outlook on life.

The amount of capital available to me grew by a factor of ten-thousand overnight. I still didn't have nearly as many resources as a Pillar family, but that would come in time. I put the money to work as well as I could with a lot of input from Medea. We'd bought a couple run-down storefronts in less-busy parts of large cities, even managing to secure a spot in Lucifaad, albeit not in an area with a lot of foot traffic. We already had crews working to fix those shops up. They'd function as our brick-and-mortar locations once we got up and running.

A larger portion of the money went to purchasing more land. The Abaddon Estate wasn't very large. We had enough room for privacy, but not for much else. More powerful families held territories large enough to hold multiple large cities on them, able to collect taxes from the citizens that lived there. I wasn't going to be opening up a village any time soon, but I saw an opportunity. Due to how out of the way our estate was, the lands around it were all fairly cheap by property standards. I bought up a significant portion of land, over quadrupling the size of my lands. Unfortunately, my rapid expansion caused the price on additional acquisitions to rise as the government arm that catalogued who owned what property realized what I was doing. I stopped buying when they jacked the prices up, but I'd acquired more than enough by then to be content.

I was also making plans to build several structures on the land, a training area similar to the one near Sairaorg's house as well as a small castle atop a large hill I planned to move into upon its completion. Maybe I was vain, but I wanted a castle. The Bael's castle spoke to something in me, and I was copying their homestead. It wouldn't be the size of a large village like theirs, but it would be large enough to accommodate all potential members of my peerage and host guests should I choose to. Besides, big, opulent houses were a status symbol in devil society. It was an investment, not a wasteful purchase. Anyone who said otherwise was unable to see the advantages of hosting potential allies in a grand castle, impressing them with your impeccable homestead selection. Construction hadn't begun yet because I wanted someone I trusted to oversee the crews while they worked and all such individuals were currently indisposed, but the plans had been drawn up by a reputable contractor Kuisha got me in contact with. I was pleased with how things were progressing.

I'd expected Magdaran to contact me by now, but there was still only silence. I wasn't sure what was holding him up, but the extra time gave me time to get all of this done and store more demonic power in my pocket dimension. If I still hadn't heard from Magdaran in the next couple of days, I would be attempting to recruit my knight.

In the meantime though…

I headed down into the basement, stepping over open texts and avoiding smudging spell circles etched into the ground. I stopped at the bottom of the entrance to a smaller room Medea had completely taken over, leaning against the wall as I watched my Queen.

Medea didn't even notice me, too embroiled in her work. The now inert form of Perfected State sat in the middle of a spell circle. Medea frantically moved around it, casting minor spells and taking notes. She'd spent every spare moment she had down here messing with that helmet. She still helped me with the matters of the estate and buying up property, and movie night had become a nightly tradition that she was always excited for, but whenever Medea wasn't with me, she was down here fiddling with that helmet. It may have been a bit hypocritical coming from me, but I was beginning to think she needed to get out of the house.

"Made any progress?"

Medea jumped in place, startled. She shoved the book in her hands onto a nearby table haphazardly, brushing some dust off her dress. "I'm sorry, master! I didn't notice you enter."

"Don't worry about it. I can tell you're enjoying working on the helmet. Any progress?"

Medea's eyebrows furrowed, an irritated expression settling over her face. "It's so aggravating! It doesn't follow any established rules of magically imbued items. It's more akin to a spirit than an item, which doesn't make any sense because it's tangible! I expected that this would be simple with an inert Gear, but it's nearly impossible! If I didn't have the sample then it would be even worse. I know I'm making progress, but at the rate I'm moving it'll take years before I have something viable to even try to test and–"

"Do you want to go on a date?" I cut in before I got cold feet. She seemed like she needed a distraction, so now was as good a time to ask as any.

Medea froze in place, slowly turning to look at me. "A… What?"

"A date. Do you want to go on a date with me, Medea? I like you. I think you're great. I think you're beautiful. And I want to go on a date with you." I put it as clearly as I could.

"I…" She sprinted past me and up the stairs, shouting distractedly over her shoulder. "I'll go get ready!" She was already gone.

I stood dumbly in the basement, alone save for a cracked black scale helmet in a spell circle. I hadn't exactly meant we'd go right this second, but it wasn't like I was doing anything important right now.

A Hole opened at my side, transporting me to my bedroom so I could change into something nicer. I guess I'd better think of a good date idea quickly.

X

Medea was practically radiating happiness as she walked at my side, holding my arm against her chest with her own and resting her head on my shoulder. She'd dressed up in a sundress similar to the one she'd worn in Paris, but she left the hat behind this time, letting her hair spill out behind her, showing off her pointed ears. I'd dressed up in black pants and a red button up shirt. I'd even combed my hair.

I wasn't prepared to go on a date right now, so I'd brought us to Lucifaad. The last time I was here, it was a struggle to leave. Everytime I went to open a Hole home, I saw another shop that I stopped at 'on the way home'. I was hoping Medea and I would find something to do while we walked around.

"It's close to lunchtime. Do you want to sit down somewhere or try something else?" I asked, ignoring the looks Medea and I were attracting. It wasn't strange for devils to openly display affection in public, but it was typically far more lustful. Medea's display of genuine joy was an uncommon sight.

"I want to walk more. Everyone needs to know that you're mine, so we're going to walk around and let them see us."

I chuckled lightly, shaking my head at the answer. "Walking it is. I'm sure we can find a stand or stall somewhere with something we can eat on the go."

It was easy enough to find a cart selling skewers with cubes of different types of meat. When I went to take our order, Medea snatched them away first. We continued walking. She would eat a cube, then hold the stick up to my mouth, letting me take one. She seemed to be having fun, so I didn't put up any protest. The food was good, and the company was better, so I had nothing to complain about.

I looked around, trying to get my bearings. I saw a street sign and realized I recognised the name. "Our shop is on this street." I observed. "Do you want to go see how the remodelling is going?"

Medea hummed an assent, and we started walking down the road. It took us a while to get there. The road connected to Lucifaad's center, but it was a fair distance removed from it. We finished our skewers about half way there and contented ourselves to walk in silence.

The building was three-stories tall, which was part of the reason I'd chosen this location as opposed to one closer to the middle of the city that was only a single level. We would have more space to work with and since this would likely be our headquarters since it was located in Lucifaad, the extra space struck me as more important than being a short distance closer to downtown. The windows weren't boarded up anymore, but the building was still locked up tight.

I was surprised to see that Medea and I weren't the only ones inspecting the building. More surprising, was who the other party was.

"Magdaran, I didn't expect to see you here." I greeted the Bael heir. The same two maids I'd met when we had lunch stood behind him.

His face lit up when he saw me. "Balthazar, what a coincidence." His eyes tracked over to the purple-haired witch dangling off my arm.

"Magdaran, allow me to introduce my Queen Caster. Caster, meet heir Bael." I introduced them.

Medea let go of my arm long enough to curtsy politely and say, "It is a pleasure, heir Bael." before she was once more stuck to my side like glue.

Magdaran looked terribly embarrassed, blushing and waving his hands in front of himself. "That's not necessary. Please just call me Magdaran. It's good to meet you, Caster. Balthazar spoke very highly of you."

Medea had a pleased smile on her face. "My King exaggerates my better qualities."

"I'm not so sure. If you caught his eye, you must be special."

"So what brings you here, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.

Magdaran motioned to the building. "I heard you had purchased several failed shops and were in the process of renovating them. I wanted to see them for myself. I assume this is for the business we discussed?"

"It is. I happened into some funds recently that allowed me to start to get the foundations set."

"I'm glad things are progressing well, and I apologize for keeping you waiting. I didn't expect things to take as long as they have on my end. I should have my preparations concluded by next week. I will write to you at the start of the week whether I am ready or not to keep you updated."

"No need to worry. I'm not in any major rush to get things going. It'll still be a while before the renovations are done anyway." Besides, another week would give me ample time to search for my prospective knight, potentially recruiting them.

"Is that why you're here? To see how the renovations are coming along?"

I wrapped an arm around Medea's shoulder, pulling her against my side. "We're actually on a date. We stopped by because we were in the area."

Magdaran's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt."

I waved off his concern. "Don't worry about it. It was good to see you, Magdaran."

"It was good to see you as well, Balthazar. I will get out of your hair so the two of you can enjoy your day. Caster, it was a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure was mine, Magdaran." Medea said with a shallow bow.

Magdaran hurried away down the street, his maids following silently behind him.

"Your assessment was right. He seems nice, if a little shy." Medea commented as we watched him leave.

"Yeah, not at all what I was expecting from him to be honest. If I'd known he was such a relaxed guy, I probably wouldn't have panicked and summoned you."

"Remind me to thank him for scaring you the next time we see him. I am very happy to not be dead, and even happier to be with you."

"I'll need to thank him too. You've been with me less than a month but I already can't picture the house without you in it."

Medea wrapped her arms around my side, laying her head against my chest as she hugged me. "You say the sweetest things, master."

"Speaking of sweet, I want some dessert. How would you like some ice cream?"

"Yes!"

We headed back the way we came towards an ice cream shop I noticed on the way over and each bought a vanilla cone. A short walk later, we found a small park filled with trees flowering unnatural colors and giving off mystical light – supernatural flora. We sat down on a bench and ate our ice cream. Medea had a whole half of the bench to herself but elected to press herself up against my side. I wasn't going to complain, I enjoyed her closeness. I just wrapped my arm around her hip and enjoyed my ice cream.

Medea finished her ice cream and rested her head on my shoulder, looking out at the park. There were young devils children chasing each other between the trees while their parents rested nearby on blankets or lawn chairs. We weren't alone, but the immediate area around us was empty, affording us some privacy.

"I'm having fun." Medea said.

"I'm glad. I am too. Sorry it took so long for me to ask you out for a first date. I've wanted to practically since I reincarnated you, but I thought it was best to give you some time to adjust. That, and we were dealing with the Magdaran situation and finding Perfected Self."

"You're wrong. This is our second date. Paris was our first." She looked up at me with narrowed eyes. "Don't steal my Paris date from me, Balthazar."

I raised an eyebrow at her, amused. "So I'm Balthazar now? Not master, not king?"

Medea huffed cutely. "Depending on how tonight goes, you might just graduate to 'honey'."

That brought me up short. I was tense as I looked down at Medea. "Tonight?"

She smiled slyly, leaning in close so her lips brushed my ear as she whispered, "Freeing Coal made me so tired. I've been feeling low on mana recently. Do you think you could help me, Balthazar?"

All of a sudden, I found myself breathing a lot faster than I had been a second ago. "Is there anything else you want to do in the city today?"

Medea frowned, pulling back slightly. "Not really. Why–"

"Good." I growled, hooking an arm under her legs and picking her up in a bridal carry. She let out a small shriek that quickly turned into a laugh. A Hole opened in front of us and we were gone from the city.

Medea's laughter cut off immediately when she realized where I'd brought us. We were in my bedroom at the foot of the bed.

"You can't say things like that without giving me ideas, my Queen." I said, drawing her attention back to me. "If you–"

Medea hooked a hand around my neck and pulled my head down to capture my lips in a fiery kiss. She pulled back with a gasp, eyes intense. "Shut up and get naked. I've waited too long for this."

SCENE CUT

I lay on my side, Medea lay my side.

Medea's hand rose to touch my face, tracing circles on my cheek. "I almost died to meet you." she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I wonder if I did die and I somehow ended up in the Christian heaven."

I took her hand, guiding it down to my mouth and laying a kiss on it. "Heaven can't have you. I would raise an army and storm the Golden Gates if they tried to take you from me. This is real. You're here with me, and I am never letting you go. You're mine."

Medea's lips pulled up into a small smile. Moisture was gathering in her eyes. "You say the sweetest things, honey."

"So I've graduated to 'honey', have I?"

"You have." Medea's smile turned predatory. "We should celebrate." She swung a leg over mine and rolled me onto my back, straddling me.

We didn't get much sleep that night.