Emperor's Reckoning

Selena was looking at the ceiling with the hole that was freshly made. After short contemplation, she darted her attention to her husband who was laying on the floor.

The restaurant was ransacked from in and out. No furniture was left unbroken and the sight was catastrophic. However, not a single life was lost in this small place that was only now a relic of what was once a glamorous restaurant.

Selena stepped in front of her husband. Her shadow enveloped his figure before she squatted down. "He's asleep."

Selena stood up as she glanced around the terrible scene, "I knew it, there was a bit of liquor in that recipe."

She sighed, "The three of them are still alive, good."

Selena squatted down and took Lyon's arm over her shoulder before she give him a piggy ride on her back. Despite the difference in their sizes, Selena didn't even arch her back as she carried him outside the restaurant.

She stepped outside the restaurant and there was a figure with furrowed brows. She noticed that all the other folks were gathering as onlookers.

The figure was a middle-aged lady and her face contorted with anger. Her arms were crossed tightly across her chest as she glared at Selena. She tapped her foot impatiently on the sidewalk. One look even from a being as small as an ant could see that she was boiling inside.

She was the owner of the restaurant. She was the one that happily received a huge sum of tokens for the establishment to be reserved by them.

The cooks and the waitresses were present but in their casual clothes worn. They didn't dare to even stand by the side of the owner of the restaurant seeing how the veins of the middle-aged lady could burst at any moment. They could feel a drama would ensue, and getting involved with it was the last thing they wanted. Half of the other reason was that Lyon and co were the ones that technically gave them a rare day off.

Selena looked at the owner with her sharp blue eyes. She and her collapsed husband was the center of attention of the night. Trouble was brewing between the two ladies even though no words escaped from their mouths.

"Oh no," the famous boutique owner covered his lips. "I hope those boys are okay, the banging and the boom don't sound safe."

The middle-aged lady tried to compose herself before she said, "I agreed that you can reserve my entire restaurant, but I should have known that you would do something dirty the moment you request that no cooks or waitresses be allowed in."

The crowd gasped and spoke amongst themselves. They were whispering at each other as they occasionally took a glance at Selena. She was a beauty in trouble, however, none of the brave men would want to step in, not with that man hanging by her back.

"What do you want?" asked Selena. "I don't want to kill people when my husband is asleep."

"Y-You!" the middle-aged lady burst her boiling point then she pointed at Selena with a trembling hand. "Do you know who you're talking to?!"

Selena frowned before the middle-aged lady took a step back. Selena was surrounded by an eerie aura that pulled out the middle-aged lady's goosebumps. The former started walking toward the owner of the restaurant.

"E-Eek!" the middle-aged lady shrieked but nothing happened. Her nose picked up an amorous fragrance from Selena's silky black hair. She turned around in awe.

The crowd didn't want to mess with the beautiful woman as well. They immediately made way for her without even an 'excuse' being uttered. They saw her walk toward the most expensive inn in town as they were left either agape or with heads shaking.

"Damn, who should I kill to have a wife of that quality," muttered a cultivator from the crowd.

"God? I don't know," answered another.

The middle-aged lady, however, was not as amused as the others. She had not seen the condition of her restaurant yet. She knuckled her hands albeit trembling and entered the restaurant.

She opened the door and her eyes aged faster than fresh milk out in the sun. Her heart sank deeper than the light could inside a deep ocean. Her throat dried in a flash. Broken tables, broken chairs, and no painting survived the onslaught either. It was a total disarray total chaos. Her knees weekend before they dropped on the floor.

The onlookers were piqued with curiosity and quickly entered the fancy restaurant as well. The off-duty cooks and waitresses immediately entered the kitchen side. It was chaos there as well. The wall was adorned with splashes of vegetable oils. The leftover food is scattered on the floor. There was even a skillet with charred meat on top, inside the bin.

Depression curtained the owner's thoughts as she struggled to get up.

"O-Owner, I think you should see this," said one of the cooks as he handed her a piece of paper.

The owner eagerly read the words scrawled across it: "Sorry, hehe, I'm writing this with every sanity I have left. The last time I got drunk, err, fuck I got no time! Anyway, I left a fortune if your restaurant is broken, I probably caused it."

Her thought immediately recollected as she furrowed her brows. She looked away from the piece of paper before an off-duty waitress rushed outside the kitchen. She frantically called the owner, "Owner! Come and see this!"

The middle-aged lady eagerly rushed in. She entered the kitchen before she found the waitress pointed out in the stockroom behind.

"All our food stocks are gone, but," the waitress gulped.

The middle-aged lady pushed her away as she stood by the door. She pushed it open and the first thing she saw challenged the stretch of her eyes. Her wrinkles dissipated as her pupils glowed with diamonds. Her thought was elevated like a roller coaster plunging toward the sky. Her heart burst with euphoria before she laughed like a mad woman.

Pile after pile of pouches filled the storage room up to the ceiling like a treasure cove. All of them were filled with Second Heaven Tokens to the brim. To say the fortune that Lyon had left behind was more than enough, was an understatement, even years of accumulating from the business of the restaurant couldn't compare.

"O-Owner, are you okay?" asked one of the cooks.

"Okay? I'm more than okay!" said the middle-aged lady as she got her spirit back. "Quick, quick! Give the couple and the lads an appetizer! Make sure to put love in that appetizer more than your mother put into you."

"That would be easy," said one of the cooks.

"What?"

"Err, nothing," said the cook before he meekly said, "But it's our day off."

"If you don't want a bonus then I will give the opportunity to someone else," said the owner.

"Bonus?!" the workers exclaimed before they got to work.

The onlookers had been pushed away from the restaurant by the owner's glare. She understood the grave matter. A new rich man was in town and she couldn't help but brim with smiles. "I wonder if he is taking another wife, no, a concubine would be fine as well!"

Meanwhile, at the fancy inn.

Selena had rented a room prior to returning to the disaster in the fancy restaurant. She was making her way toward the deluxe room that she prepared for her and her husband. She kicked the door open before carefully putting her husband on the king's size bed.

Selena proceeded to close the door. She looked over the room and found a medium-sized circular bath made out of wood. She pondered as she looked at the reflection in the water. She dipped her hand before she nodded. It was the perfect temperature against the cold of the night.

She turned her attention toward Lyon who was sleeping as if not even the end of the world would wake him up. She smiled, her footsteps thudding against the wooden floor as she approached her husband. She started stripping her husband. His clothes fly away piece by piece, adorning the wooden floor.

Selena looked at her bare husband. He was way younger than the day he saved her from that marriage and the curse of the art she practiced to be unbeatable in the way of the sword. She placed her palm on the center of his chest and reminisced in the warmth before she pulled him up and dipped his body into the warm bath carefully.

She stripped down herself before joining the bath. She grabbed a sponge and washed her husband's body with the readily available soap by the side. She took care of him all the way before she took him to the bed and laid him bare.

She smiled seeing the work of art that she did on her husband. She walked by the opposite side of the bed before joining him. She snuggled in his arm before her breath reached his chest. She placed her arm across.

She looked up at his face but uttered no word before she buried her face in his bosom and tightened her embrace.

"I envy you... Maria... and I'm sure, that auburn too."

Selena soon joined Lyon in his dreamland.