"I could be the social media manager. We need to have a team page on Insta and the like to promote ourselves and grow a proper fanbase! I can also cook our food until we get rich enough to hire a personal chef," Nyx suggested excitedly.
"I suppose I could be responsible for technological stuff. Unless you know a lot about them, Kaiden, I think I'm the best at it. Certainly not the two bimbos."
"First of all, I'm not a bimbo. As for the question, I don't know… honestly, I never had a lot of free time to learn skills like these." A sudden light shined in Aria's beautiful eyes as she thought of something. "Oh, I know! I could be the makeup artist and the girls' personal trainer. Both of you could use some exercise, and that's an objective fact, not me being rude. I would happily train you too, Kai, but…"
"Yeah, I'll stick with Liam for a bit longer. We are having too much success," he nodded.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure he is much better for your progress than I could be…" Aria said dejectedly.
Kaiden smiled, "I only spend two hours a week with him as my trainer, I would be overjoyed if we could train together beyond that. Furthermore, who knows what will happen after we gain a few levels? By then, we will surely outgrow training regiments made by non-awakened humans."
"Okay!" Aria cheered but then turned sad instantly. "Guys… I don't know if I can move in with you. I'm the sole caretaker of my younger siblings."
"Hmm…" Kaiden pondered for a second, but seeing that the silver-haired supermodel didn't elaborate further, he could only accept that she didn't wish to talk about it for now. "What about you, Luna, Nyx?"
"I can move in at any time," Nyx informed him. "I live alone in a rental studio, and I would happily give up on it for a party house."
All eyes turned to Luna, who was deep in thought for a few seconds before she steeled her resolve.
"I starred in today's filming because I was forced to by my brother. I feared that he truly meant it when he said he would sell me out to his bosses. Even in this situation, I was trying my best to give him the benefit of the doubt, which was stupid, I know… But since meeting you all yesterday, my eyes have been opened. I realized that the kind of atmosphere we have going on between the four of us is what my heart needs, not the depressing aura of that dreadful place I used to call 'home.' I want to pack my stuff and live with you guys."
Nyx and Aria weren't privy to her backstory, but they both got the gist of it through contextual clues evidenced by their grim expressions.
"What about his demands of $5,000 a month?" Kaiden asked.
"I will give him what he wants a couple of times. Maybe 30,000 total. After all, he did work tirelessly to provide for me over the years, so I will repay him the amount he's owed. I don't want to feel indebted, but unless he gets on his knees and begs for forgiveness, I will not think of him as family but as the guy who forced me to almost sell my soul, which is what would've happened had I not met you."
Kaiden nodded at her reasoning and then spoke up.
"It's settled, then. Luna and Nyx will move in with me. Nyx, you should head home and pack your stuff. I will help you move tomorrow. For now, I want to go with Aria and check on her situation to get a better understanding, if that's alright with you?" he asked while glancing at the athletic beauty.
"S-sure, but my house is not very clean…" Aria agreed apprehensively, worried she'd leave a bad impression once he stepped foot into her home.
"Don't worry about it. Once Nyx has moved in, I propose we register at the Awakened Association and, soon after, visit our first dungeon. We will also begin to look for a place starting today. We need an affordable family-sized apartment, or we will make each other go crazy. Privacy is important even in close relationships. In the meantime, we will try to make money to get all of you out of trouble."
"Now that you say it, what is our relationship exactly?" Aria asked.
"Yeah, you didn't answer Aria's earlier confession. Not cool, Kaiden…" Nyx teased.
The girl in question blinked embarrassedly while cutely stealing glances at him.
"I consider all of you to be equally important to me. I will not play favorites, or what we have will soon turn sour. So, Aria, I'm sorry, but until Nyx and Luna also wish to be my lovers, I want all of us to remain as we are."
Kaiden knew that if he had taken one of them as a girlfriend while the other two remained as his kind of friends with benefits/friendly colleagues, the current harmony they shared would soon be ruined.
In his harem, he didn't want to have a main wife—a queen bee, so to speak. As far as Kaiden was concerned, he was already the luckiest man alive to have a chance at having a harem of such beautiful girls. If he began playing favorites, it felt like he would be spitting in the faces of the wonderful existences who agreed to accept him as their shared man.
"I don't mind being your lover. After all, you're my god and master now," Nyx stated coyly, though it was hard to determine if she was jesting or not.
"I can also… I can also be your girlfriend… If you want it so much...!" Luna muttered with great difficulty.
He examined the two for a while before accepting their words and clapping his palms together decisively. "Then, from today on, I'm the lover of the three most beautiful women on planet Earth," Kaiden announced happily.
Yes, Nyx wasn't smitten by him yet, but she had a very favorable impression of Kaiden for sure, and they would be living and working together, which included having steamy sex, so their relationship wouldn't be very different if they went from being friends to lovers. Maybe if he took her on romantic dates and such, she would fall for him all the way. Or perhaps, in her case, a badass dungeon-clearing session would be better. They could finish the day by mating on top of a defeated dragon's corpse.
'Sounds hot.'
…
Meanwhile, Vespera was sitting in the comfortable backseat of her luxury sedan as it sped down the highway. She could get around with her powers effortlessly, but she liked to be driven around. It reminded her of the simpler times when she was nothing more than the top executive of her family's conglomerate.
"You did the right thing, Vespera," Her elderly servant, who has taken care of the woman since birth as if she were her real mother, voiced her thoughts while driving the car.
"… The right thing?" The Monarch of Shadows repeated the servant's words coldly. "I just disowned my beloved son."
"You did it because it was the best choice for all parties involved. Kaiden also hated living in your home, you know that."
Vespera reluctantly accepted her reasoning, "I do." However, she wasn't done. "Yet I'm still the woman who brought him into this cruel world, and now I threw my innocent baby away as if he were defective, and I was ashamed of him."
Seeing that her words weren't having much effect on the grieving mother, the old lady sighed. Her heart was heavy, too, for she'd known Kaiden since he was a baby. "As I said, you did the right thing, and that's what matters."
"Hitler also believed he was doing the right thing."
"…"