50

We arrive at the mayor's palace and quickly are escorted to Delia and she reports everything to Catherine.

"So everything is ready and we can proceed with the reason we came here." she finishes her report and Catherine nods and lets us know she is going to talk to the mayor and for Delia to prepare for departure.

I follow Delia since she was staring at me once Catherine left and signaled for me to follow. we made it out of the building before she took a more thorough look at me.

"Something you are looking for Lady Delia?" she snorts and starts to walk faster and I easily keep up.

"I can't believe I was slightly worried about you and yet you are perfectly fine and even joking around. do you know how important this mission was since empress Catherine sent her personal sigil to use? that means it's very serious and the lady you ran off with is likely being groomed to be her heir and you casually show up and don't even seem worried." if only you knew dear Delia, if only you knew.

"Well I appreciate your concern and also would like to thank you for trying to look out for my health." she waves me off.

"I was only worried Athena would be sad but from now on you are on your own and it's not my problem." She seems in an actual bad mood before she was cold but this is more frigid. I wonder what could have happened between then and now.

"It's not my place to question you but are you ok? I don't mind listing if you just want to complain I promise to keep anything you say a secret." she stops for a moment and her fists turn white with how hard she is squeezing and I can hear her teeth grinding together.

"You're right it's not your place to ask but I just got my hopes up and they got squashed so I am not in the mood for any games right now." her voice is fiery and almost a shout before it slowly turns into a whimper. something is bothering her or did bother her and I can't possibly understand what. if this happened in the original it was never spoken about and I can't imagine Delia caring for anything this early other than trying to get free of the soul shackles. I could offer to try to loosen them as I did for Kia but then she might not go to silent night wetland and I need her to go so Broc follows and brings his half of the family's artifact. but then again this is a woman that has persisted through some horrible things and it would be cruel of me to not try to help when I know she is Athena's best friend and she worried about me for Athena's sake.

"Alright, but after we get everything ready for Lady Christina's departure You and I are going to try out my new alcohol. the Lady wanted to try it herself and until she is ready to go you and I are going to go through them so I can build up my confidence to show them off to her. I might even get a deal for her to try to sponsor me and sell them in dark shadow empire." she doesn't respond but also doesn't deny my request, so we walk in silence as she gets everything ready.

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"And this one is made with some jade dragon fruit and has less of a kick to it." Delia smells the small glass and sips some before downing the whole thing.

"Hmmm, it does have less of a kick but I liked that kick in the pink one. what did you do to make that one pink like that?" she has tried all fourteen of the new brews Naliyi has come up with since I put her in charge of experimenting with her Alchemy training. and to be honest she has gone above and beyond and I haven't been able to keep up with her progress so I have no clue what's in most of these.

"To be honest that one is a mystery to me since Naliyi made it and I haven't had time to ask she just wanted me to try it so she gave me all her new potential products." she hums as she grabs the pink liquor and drinks straight from the bottle. as she gulps it down I can slightly see her neckline and I notice some scars and am reminded of the marks she gives herself every time her brother Broc rapes her. I look at some other bottles to not seem like I am staring and wonder how I can help her get rid of them once Broc is dead and her trauma can start to heal. that's when I realize I have the Phenex trait and also learned the Phenex tear ritual when I gained it but I was too busy pressing Catherine into the bed to even notice I had gained the trait till after. with these tears, I can heal her scars and also make some mega profits selling them, but before I can get too distracted she slams the empty bottle down and hiccups.

"That fucking bastard was here and I misunderstood." what the hell is she on about?

"Who?" after I ask I regret it because I remember the only bastard Delia wastes her time on is Roman and I honestly forgot he was hiding in the town till he got caught screwing Naliyi. she never even mentioned him so I forgot that was a thing and it was likely because she hadn't had an affair with him yet meaning Roman is likely still in hiding here and fucking different people wives. if Delia saw him and he was up to his wife-snagging antics she was probably heartbroken thinking he might be here to see her and in reality, he doesn't even know she is here.

"My EX he left me before and I thought he could have been here to see me since my brother and his people aren't around. I followed him and found out he was just meeting with some girls at their house and would go from one to the other like it was his mission to screw as many as possible." she grips the neck of the bottle and squeezes it not paying attention to the thing shattering and throws her hands up scattering glass shards. if she wasn't at demon king level she likely would have cut her hand but she is tough enough to not get hurt.

"Damn, want me to go kneecap the guy?" she stops gritting her teeth to look up at me, and even with the veil I can see confusion in her glowing blue eyes. "it's where I take his kneecaps and his life gets a lot harder without those." she still looks confused before slowly leaning back and putting a hand over her veiled face and I can see her shoulders shaking, then I hear her whimpering again.

"No, I don't want to see him hurt. I just shouldn't have got my hopes up I know no one can help me and I am cursed." she continues to cry and I start to feel awkward as I try to get her attention to no avail. I stand up and walk over to the couch she is sitting on in the carriage and sit next to her, she slowly stops crying as I pat her back awkwardly. "I *Hic* don't think I want to bother with him anymore, thanks for asking on my behalf though."

"Hey, you're supposed to be Athena's best friend right? beating him up is the least I can do, how about you tell me what's wrong and why you think you are cursed? you might not know it but I am pretty capable of solving problems." she sits back up so I give her some space and she looks over possibly judging the truth of what I am saying before letting out a sigh.

"Well it's not like I haven't already embarrassed myself already." she takes a deep breath and calms herself before adjusting so she is sitting halfway facing me. "I was forced to marry someone because of my brother so my ex-lover and I ran away together. then we got hunted down and one thing after another and all of a sudden we are in Athena's care. without her, we would have likely died and so we felt grateful and she even sheltered us in her dad's fortress. then after some time Broc made it a political issue and got us dragged out but when they came to take us away Roman ran off on his own leaving me to face the music alone. I always thought there was more to the story since we loved each other but then I find him doing what he was doing here and I know I was just wrong about him." wow, that's all I can think since this turned from bad to worse for Roman. in the original he had to bow and suck up to her to get her to forgive him and even then needed the MC to help him get back with her.

"I see, well I might be able to help you." if I get her help I can probably unlock the Leviathan bloodline and if I queen her I can have a Leviathan queen, not a bad deal for me so let's see where this goes. plus I always hated how she ended up back together with Roman when he could have stopped all her suffering by leaving with her again. they had his dad hostage but in reality, his dad was already dead. Delia was willing to suicide with him but he just dropped her and went off to cry about it like a bitch.

"You can't help I am soul shackled by my brother and he will hunt you down if you were to try anything." well currently your brother is laying up somewhere healing after I almost took another limb from him.

"So what? you just throw in the towel?" she shakes her head.

"If I get an item I can resist the effects of the soul shackles and go into hiding and try to live the rest of my life in peace." I snort and shake my head.

"How about I help you get the item and we just kill the guy and you don't have to hide like you did something wrong."

"My brother is a demon emperor and has a lot of battle experience it is to hard to fight him I would need time to catch up and that would take a long time."

"How about this, I help you get the item, and then we see how you feel about it. you can run off and hide or you can join up with me and train to get revenge. I am close to being a demon emperor myself so once I am I will help you." she is silent for a moment before falling back into the couch and staring at the ceiling.

"Why? you don't know me I just got a little buzzed and complain to you and so you offer help fighting a powerful demon emperor?" I laugh at the thought of Broc being powerful, the dude uses any and everything available to cling to the position he has and is outmatched by most people I have fought within the emperor tier. when Shea and Izzy were battling after reincarnation they were much more of a threat in my opinion.

"The why is a mix of pity and because you are Athena's friend. also since you are a Leviathan I might need your help in the future to do some things and I want you to return the favor."

"Ok." she agrees and I can't help but feel good having almost locked in leviathan artifact and bloodline. "But I won't do anything that's against my morals in return."