"I AM SO, SO, SO SORRYYYY!"
"Ara?"
Selunara giggled into the sleeve of her yukata as she helped up the kneeling Lilith.
Lilith's face was a portrait of utter mortification. Her first meeting with her mother-in-law and not only had she screamed at her, she called her a bitch!
Never before had Lilith wished to end her existence as much as she did now.
Ana stifled a laugh as she tried to be considerate of her sister-wife. Nevaris had no such concerns.
"GAHAHAHAHA!"
Hearing his unrestrained laughter, a vein snaked up Lilith's forehead as she tried to maintain a lady-like image in front of her mother-in-law.
Selunara raised an eyebrow before throwing a thumb over her shoulder at the still laughing Nevaris, "Are you not gonna handle that?"
Lilith blinked before cautiously asking, "Y-Your meaning madam?"
Rolling her eyes, Selunara delivered her wisdom with a self-righteous expression, "It is a wife's duty to set her husband straight. If they need correction, it should be done immediately and with extreme prejudice."
Nevaris was no longer laughing.
"Y-You mean it? Really madam!?" Lilith asked with shining eyes.
The traitorous mother graced her with a kind smile as she nodded, "No need to hold back my dear. And none of that madam nonsense, call me mom."
"Yes mother!" Though still a little reserved about calling her such an intimate term as 'mom', Lilith happily corrected her address before shooting her now pale-faced, unruly husband a sickeningly sweet smile.
"Was it funny, da–r–ling~?"
Nevaris gulped as he put up an arm in pitiful self-defense, "N-Now hold on I didn't mean that! I wasn't laughing at you!"
Lilith blinked her innocent eyes in curiosity, "Then what were you laughing at?"
Seeing an opportunity, he put on a serious expression and replied solemnly, " I was laughing at how sexy you can look while still making a fool of yourself."
"..."
"..."
Lilith's smile grew wider.
"Grit those teeth."
"Yes ma'am."
…
"So when did you two arrive?" Selunara asked as she accepted the tea cup handed to her by Ana.
BANG! BANG!
Ana took a seat beside her as she sipped her own tea before replying, "About a day or two ago. It has been a wondrous few days!"
SHING!
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! NO SCYTHES! NO SCYTHESSS!"
"Accept your punishment!"
STAB
"GAHHHH!"
Ana and Selunara continued their conversation happily. Neither paying any attention to the murder happening just a few feet away from them.
As she brought the tea cup to her lips, Selunara's moon-like eyes observed the girl in front of her. Curious about this daughter-in-law of hers.
'Mmm, good tea!'
Enjoying the delightful drink, she noticed that the commotion beyond their peaceful tea time had at some point ceased.
Glancing over her raised cup, she was stunned for a moment at the sight.
Her precious son, his clothes in tatters and his face now sporting a new panda spot over his eye, lay on the floor in a heap, his eyes vacant as he questioned the meaning of his life (or rebirth).
And her promising daughter-in-law, wiping away the sweat on her brow as she beamed with a contented, victorious smile as she basked in the euphoric aftermath of her righteous task.
Selunara nodded in admiration as she looked at her beaten son without a hint of pity or remorse for her role in all of it.
"Very good my dear. You have potential~" she said, her voice full of admiration.
"Thank you, mother~" Lilith responded with glee as she skipped over to them and sat down, pouring herself a cup of tea.
Ana pulled out a handkerchief and began to wipe Lilith's face gently while chastising her, "Honestly! You are always running all over the place. Will sitting still kill you?"
Lilith flinched slightly at the unfamiliar concern and pampering. But seeing the genuine sincerity in her eyes, the tension in her shoulders eased a little, the instinct to recoil bleeding away into a quiet, bashful acceptance.
Selunara's eyes brightened like stars as she watched the blossoming relationship between the two.
Her gaze turned thoughtful, but a resentful voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
"How kind of you mother? Seeing your precious son for the first time in weeks only to throw him into the claws of a sadistic demoness," Nevaris growled.
Lilith shot him a victorious smirk as Ana was too busy fixing her hair to notice the happenings around her.
Selunara looked at him without a change in expression.
"You were asking for it. Should I have let my poor daughter feel wronged?"
Nevaris choked on his own breath, "And what about me??"
"What about you?" his loving mother responded casually with a raised brow.
Lilith clasped her hands in front of her chest. Her watery eyes filled with reverence and something bordering utter adoration as she looked at Selunara's regal grace.
This is what a real woman looks like. No–what a true queen is!
No repentance!
No remorse!
Just completely logical unreasonableness and the right amount of "fuck-you-gonna-do-about-it" energy!
'S-SO COOL!' she squealed inwardly.
Selunara caught her gaze out of the corner of her eye, and gave her a knowing wink that nearly caused her to faint. Yup, that's another devout worshiper of the Cult of Selly as her thousands of secret (not really) fangirls call themselves.
As to why there aren't any fanboys? Well, a few brave fools tried to scheme their way in, and let's just say, the reckoning that followed was biblical.
Nevaris grumbled wordlessly as he walked to his seat. Grabbing Ana by her willowy waist and seating her possessively in his lap in the process.
Much to her embarrassment, and great joy.
Seeing her source of comfort being stolen away so rudely, Lilith nearly leapt out of her seat in rage. Only to see Ana not even trying to struggle for their newly forged sisterly bond as she lay in Nevaris' greedy embrace with reddened cheeks and dreamy eyes.
Lilith felt something in her heart shatter as she collapsed in her seat.
'I-I mean I get it. I would act the same way if he held me like that. Trapped in his big. Sexy. Muscular. Lickable arms…b-but there are things more important than a sexy husband straight out of a wet-dream! Y-Yeah! Principles! At least I have-'
Before she could even attempt to convince herself of her supposed higher position on the moral ladder, she witnessed Nevaris plant a soft kiss on Ana's cheek. The kind that made bones melt, and wombs instinctively drop, and she instantly folded.
"S-So jealous…" she mumbled to herself.
But seeing his smug grin as he turned back to her, her hair bristled as she whipped her head to the side in a hard pout.
Nevaris laughed easily, loving every second of the moment.
"I'm happy to see the three of you so in love~"
The unexpected voice, filled with motherly indulgence, caused the three of them to pause.
The girls' faces went beet red, but their lowered gazes sparkled with a pride and happiness that Selunara couldn't miss even if she had tried.
Her son, on the other hand, showcased a level of shamelessness that she didn't know he was capable of…or anyone she knew for that matter.
"Of course they love me, what's not to love? I'm strong, I got a body sculpted by the gods, and I'm a hopeless romantic through and through," Nevaris said with a face that couldn't be any straighter.
"..."
Three heads turned to stare at him with blank expressions.
Lilith turned to her new mother-in-law with dead eyes, "Has he always been like…this?"
Ana didn't speak, but you could tell she was thinking the exact same question as her friend.
The corner of Selunara's lips twitched as she responded, "Not that I can remember. And I remember everything about him."
The girls' eyes lit up at those words.
"Everything?" Lilith probed.
"Like, everything-everything??" Ana reiterated as her eyes shone with excitement.
Her heart felt it before her heightened mental processing even registered the sacred opportunity before her.
'This is it isn't it!? My 'mother-in-law moment'??' Selunara squealed inwardly as she tried to maintain a motherly smile.
But to the now sweating Nevaris, it was the smile of a devil in scaled clothing.
"M-Ma, l-let's not-" he began.
With a single, pointed death glare. Nevaris clammed up tighter than a virgin's asshole. A brief premonition of his gruesome death at his own mother's hand flashed in his mind.
But she would never kill him…right?
(She most definitely will if you fuck this up for her - Author)
"Well you see when Nevi was just a little baby, he used to do this cute thing where…"
'Gods kill me.'
A single tear rolled down his cheek as he closed his eyes in resignation.
…
"--and then there was this one thing where after he came home covered in mud, he held out a little kitten and said, 'Mama this is my first friend! Can we keep him!?'"
""AWEEEE!""
The girls had been totally invested in the stories Selunara told. 'Kyaaa' and 'aweee' being the most consistent remarks as they held their cheeks with enraptured expressions.
Meanwhile, Nevaris lay back in his seat, his head leaned back in a catatonic state as he felt every bit of the aura he had accumulated since coming here leave him like he was sloppy seconds.
Finally taking pity on her traumatized son, or many just finding her need to embarrass him sated. Selunara giggled before changing the subject.
"Anyway, enough about old stories. I have a few questions to ask you all."
Grasping onto the lifeline, Nevaris hurriedly put a hand over Ana's mouth just as she was about to say something and hurriedly spoke.
"Of course, of course! Ask away Ma!"
Ana gave him a resentful glare while Lilith rolled her eyes at his childish behavior.
Selunara watched in amusement before shifting her gaze to the two of them.
"Do you two truly love my son?"
Nevaris flinched at the direct question, not expecting her to put them on the spot so suddenly.
Just as he opened his mouth to tell her to stop, the two of them answered faster. Both without a second's hesitation.
""Yes!""
He was dumbfounded. If not for hearing the devotion and conviction in their voices himself. He would have assumed they were merely placating his mother.
"I-Isn't that a little fast? You guys have known me for like a day," he said, a hint of genuine wonder on his face.
The ladies gave him weird looks while his mother shook her head, calling him a "dense idiot" in her head.
"Darling, we aren't humans. We don't need 'time' to understand that we love someone. We just feel it and we just…well, know."
Nodding her head to Lilith's words, Ana continued in her adorable, matter-of-fact tone.
"As nonhumans, we can tell when we find a suitable mate through smell, touch, and in some cases, or most cases, more… p-primal methods."
As she spoke that last part, her cheeks turned a cute, apple red.
Nevaris understood. Coming from 2025 Earth, love and romance were not as tangible or respected there.
They were reduced more often to fleeting thrills and hollow gestures than the sweeping devotion he had felt from his fiancees who he had known for less than three days.
Thinking of this, he stared at his fiancees–no, his wives, with renewed purpose. Vowing to love them and hold them sacred for as long as they held him.
As if sensing the intent behind his gaze, both their faces turned beet red.
"How cute~" Selunara squealed.
At that moment, she ignored the ill intent and malice behind the engagement all together. Even forgetting her own dissatisfaction at her son's marriage being treated like the butt-end of a bad joke.
She was truly thankful to her bastard father for gifting her such wonderful daughters-in-law.
She sighed silently in her heart, but her expression suddenly turned grave as she looked at Nevaris. Her next question catching them all off guard, and causing Nevaris' face to fall slightly.
"Are you my son?"