"We invited you, you know?" Victoria said, resting her head on her palm. "Yet you never answered. Astaroth had hope that you were just gone somewhere, but I thought you had simply forgotten about your friend."

Rael rolled his eyes. "How could I forget someone so annoying? No. I just couldn’t really make it, since I was stuck in a place where time was considerably slowed down, while time out here was significantly sped up. For me, around a day and a bit had passed, while for you, it had been close to two decades, I believe."

That would definitely explain how and why Astaroth had so many children now.

Anyhow...

"Are you mad at me?" Rael asked.

Victoria thought about it for a moment, then shook her head.

"I personally couldn’t care less. Dragons are beings who live for a very long time, so for friends to stay apart from one another and miss their weddings is not a very uncommon occurrence. More importantly, I had already gotten word from your wives that you were gone, so I knew exactly what was happening."

Hmm...

So basically, she was saying that the only way that he would have built up a grudge with someone was if someone actually cared enough despite all the information they had.

Astaroth was definitely that kind of person, so Rael felt like at the very least, he should explain some stuff before moving on.

That was the least he could do.

"Well, if it’s no trouble, you can talk to Gaia for a bit while I go chat up Astaroth," Rael said, turning to Gaia.

She shrugged and said:

"It’s not a problem for me."

And as for Victoria, she just nodded, seemingly of the same opinion. So with that in mind, Rael decided to just make his way to the kitchen, right where Astaroth had gone.

Though along the way, Rael spotted several of Astaroth’s children simply running around and pushing each other. They didn’t seem to care about their injuries, since whichever injury they had received, they would immediately heal it.

That seemed to be one of the boons that come from being the children of one of the most powerful dragon combinations.

Heh.

The kids don’t really care about my presence though. Here I thought I could act like some good uncle to them and get some brownie points. Sadly, I’ll just have to deal with Astaroth instead.

And so, after just a few more seconds, Rael arrived in the massive kitchen and spotted Astaroth flipping eggs and also baking something in the oven. He was very proficient at cooking from what it looked like.

But then again, he was wearing an apron with a heart on it. He looked very silly. Though that silliness clearly didn’t bother him as he turned around and nodded at Rael.

"You don’t have to blame yourself for not coming. Truth be told, I barely give a shit anyway. I had plenty of other guests here, as well as some old friends I somehow managed to reach out to."

Rael leaned against the counter and whistled.

"So you’re not pissed at all? That’s a bit surprising given how shitty of a temper you have."

Astaroth scoffed. "The only reason I’m pissed is because you keep bothering me. Even today. Today is my anniversary with Victoria, and instead of having a peaceful time, I have to act nice in front of my kids and serve two extra people food. It fucking sucks."

Yep.

This was the same Astaroth that Rael remembered.

"Well, you probably shouldn’t do that. I got two wives waiting back home with some shower foreplay. I’ll be heading out soon, since I still need to check up on some things," Rael replied.

Astaroth paused for a moment. "Shower foreplay? Nearly two decades have passed and you’re still at such a lazy and unimpressive form of foreplay? Huh... I half expected you to be messing around with them in the center of black holes by now. Guess I thought too highly of you."

Rael rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything. Instead, he pushed Astaroth aside and began dicing the food up much faster than Astaroth could, managing to finish everything in less than a minute.

Afterwards, Rael dumped everything into a bowl, seasoned it, and gave Astaroth a thumbs up.

"Just boil all of this and it’ll be ready."

Astaroth let out a chuckle. "Is that really it? You sure you don’t wanna cancel on your wives and hang out?"

"No way. Have your anniversary. I’m going to have fun for a week, then visit you again. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The only reason I even came here in the first place was because I thought you were more pissed than you actually were."

Since that wasn’t the case, Rael had no reason to stay here anymore. Sure, he missed Astaroth, as he was a nice lad to hang around with and be annoyed by, but there was no way he was ditching his wives just to eat some dinner.

Ahem...

"Suit yourself, I guess," Astaroth said with a shrug. "Now I need to prepare some more food, so go say bye to my wife and fuck off."

With that, he began chopping some more fruits and vegetables. In the meantime, Rael smiled to himself and took his leave, walking back to the throne room.

Surprisingly, Gaia and Victoria were laughing, and it didn’t take a genius to know that those two were getting along quite well. Still, when Gaia realized that Rael had come back, she quickly nodded at Victoria and walked up to him.

"All done?"

"For now it is," Rael replied. "I’ll visit him again in a week or so to hang out. Though that’s it, I guess. The only thing I have in mind is to check up on Altros and Melissa. It’s been a while..."

And for that reason alone, Rael didn’t hesitate to simply open a portal to their world, and alongside Gaia, the two of them left the Dragon Realm.