Preparations

"I-Is it true?" She asked sheepishly.

"Ah M-Mira is what true dear?"  Anyone could tell Lisa was embarrassed and it was understandable given what her daughter had almost just witnessed.

"I-Is the cool eye man going to be my daddy?"

As soon as they heard her question, Lailah smiled while Lisa and Exedra let out an immense sigh of relief.

Lisa walked towards Mira and sat down in front of her.

"It's true… does that bother you?" She asked her as gently as possible.

Mira looked back and forth between the three of them before she ran up to Exedra and hugged his leg.

"No way! I've never had a daddy before!"

As we alll smiled at this tender scene Mira looked at her mother and gave her another critical hit, "Now mommy won't be lonely!"

This earned a snicker from Lailah and a rather embarrassed look from Lisa.

"Wait no!" Mira suddenly backed away from me and put on an upset expression before she folded her little arms across her chest.

"I won't accept you as my father unless you give me eyes like yours!"

"Mira! You can't just-" Lisa began

"Okay." Exedra said simply.

"Really?!" Mira looked so excited one could easily see sparkles in her bright amber eyes.

Exedra kneeled in front of the young girl and held out his hand. "If you accept me as your father, I promise we can do the amica ritual. So that you can have eyes just like mine."

The Amica ritual is a sacred right for dragons. It allows them to share traits, abilities, and sometimes strength with someone they have deemed as a true friend and companion.

'While Mira's little body is much too small and frail to handle any of my strength or abilities, I should be able to give her eyes like mine just fine.'

Instead of taking his outstretched hand, Mira dove into Exedra's arms and gave him a surprisingly strong hug for a little dragon.

Mira : "Daddy!"

For the first time, Exedra experienced what it was like to have paternal instincts as he vowed not to let this little girl ever see a moment of harm.

Lailah : "Fufufu, I think that's a yes."

Lisa : "Look at those two, he's spoiling her already!"

Exedra / Mira : "Get used to it!"

Lisa just put on an exhausted expression before she gave up.

-

Lailah and Exedra were preparing to leave and continue their date since it was still light outside.

They were going to head back to her favorite bakery, before heading to a weapons shop in preparation for the dungeon raid tomorrow.

Lisa and Mira would spend the time packing up and preparing to move to the castle, and the young couple would retrieve them on their way back.

As they waved goodbye to the girls, Exedra could not help but take a slightly longer glance at Lisa before continuing on his way.

When he remembered what had transpired earlier, he began to feel incredibly guilty.

He had only agreed to all this in the hopes of using Lisa for some petty revenge.

But now that she was placing so much hope in him, and Mira had even accepted him as her father, he realized that maybe this wasn't the right thing to do.

"So, what do you think of Lisa?" Lailah asked teasingly.

The spectacle the two of them had put on earlier had confirmed that there was at least some mutual attraction.

"She's very beautiful and charming." He replied honestly.

"Hmm? More than me or Bekka?"

The sudden mention of his second wife caused him to feel like he'd suddenly forgotten about a crucial detail.

"Will Bekka be okay with this...?"

He didn't want to pursue something new if it would jeopardize what he already had. 

At the end of the day, Bekka and Lailah had been trying to build a relationship with him long before his appearance changed, and he knew better than anyone how rare something like that was. 

The loyalty they had for him back then had ensured that he would always consider their feelings above all else.

Lailah thought hard about how best to answer this question.

"If I'm honest, she'll probably be really upset."

"Christ..."

"But I'm sure once we tell her what's going on, she'll understand the decisions we made today." Lailah replied honestly.

'And just incase she doesn't, I've already got Lisa working on a surefire way to coax her into listening to reason.' Lailah thought sneakily. 

"How can you be certain?" Exedra suddenly asked.

"Well...  I understand how Bekka feels. We both want to be a bit selfish and keep you to ourselves, but for some reason when I think of sharing you with Lisa, I feel fine." She said honestly.

"Just because you feel like that, doesn't mean that she will my love."

"Fufufu~, I suppose we'll just have to see then!"

The two chatted for a bit more before falling into a silence.

Both of them had experienced a lot today, and it seemed that it was finally catching up with them. 

Suddenly, Lailah asked Exedra a question that had been weighing heavily on her mind since earlier.

"Can you... teach me how you learn spells so fast?"

Exedra didn't immediately answer her, instead he took her hand and stopped walking."Why?"

The young witch hesitated for a moment before she spoke. 

"I want to be stronger... Lisa is my friend but when she was about to be violated by those men, I couldn't even do anything to stop it...

If it weren't for you she would have been..." Lailah did not continue but Exedra knew very well where her mind was headed.

"I know that you want to help me.. but I want to be strong on my own so that one day you won't have to. "

Lailah had been weak her entire life.

Before she had never thought much about it and simply accepted that things were always going to be that way. 

Not everyone is meant to be strong after all. 

But today, Lailah became determined to change her circumstances by any means necessary. 

What if that had been Bekka that needed help?

What if one day it was her husband? 

She couldn't just freeze up again.

She had to be better.

And so, Lailah asked her husband the all important question, hoping that his answer would mark her new beginning.

Exedra recognized how badly Lailah wanted his answer to be yes, but he had to be honest. "I have a unique way of learning magic that I can't teach you, my wife..." 

Lailah immediately looked crestfallen, and seeing that look tugged at her husband's heart relentlessly.

"But if you want to be stronger, I believe I know exactly how to help you. I just need you to trust me." He suddenly said.

Her eyes immediately regained their light and she nodded furiously. "Of course!"

Exedra smiled and resumed pulling her hand towards the bakery.

This was a conversation they'd have to sit down for.

-

After Exedra and Lailah left, Lisa and Mira began packing for theirr migration to the castle.

Lisa hadn't told Mira exactly where they were moving, only that it was somewhere much bigger than their current upstairs loft.

She was still a bit worried about how she and her daughter would be treated inside the castle, but Exedra assured her that everyone was very kind and no one would think less of them.

'Exedra…'

As she silently folded clothes into a suitcase, Lisa once again remembered the face of the handsome young man who was going to be her new husband.

When she remembered the incident that had occurred earlier, her face reddened in shame and embarrassment.

'Just hearing the way he was so ready to accept Mira as his own was enough to set me off like that.' 

Of course she was attracted to his physical appearance and his power but just seeing the way he was with Mira… nothing could've made Lisa want him more.

'What am I thinking this isn't a real marriage!'

'What if he thinks I'm some kind of whore?!'

'Although… before Mira came in I could've sworn he was going to reach for me…'

'I must've been seeing what I wanted to see...'

Lisa shook her head and in an attempt to get her mind out of the gutter. 

Exedra already had two wives that were younger and much more beautiful, so surely she must've been the only one thinking so hard about this.

Lisa's eyes went wide as she suddenly remembered a crucial detail that she'd forgotten.

"That's right, his other wife!" 

Remembering the plan Lailah had told her about earlier, she immediately began running towards the kitchen while calling for her daughter.

"Mira! Can you come help me really quickly?"