....


    "Don''t talk about my daughter, you yboy bastard!" Marina yelled with an infuriated tone.


    She was about to build up energy and kill him right then and there, but before she could, he interrupted, saying:


    "Why do you keep calling me ''yboy''? I''m not a yboy," Azmond said.


    "Well, that''s because you yed around with my daughter''s feelings, only to go after my maids afterwards!"


    "... You know I never touched your daughter, don''t you?" Azmond asked with a puzzled expression.


    "L-Lies! Why would she call you her ''husband'' if you haven''t even made it to second base yet!?" Marina spat back.


    "..." He didn''t know how to respond to that without making Aqua sound like a crazy person, so he simply replied, "Maybe Aqua has been craving the attention of her gorgeous mother, so she fabricated a rtionship with me to fill that gaping hole in her heart."


    Azmond was, of course, speakingplete and utter nonsense, but he had looked at the status screen of Marina. And if he was right in his assumptions, then this should do the trick just fine.


    "..." Marina heard his words as they put her into a deep state of thinking.


    ''Is that really the case? But I thought my rtionship with my daughter was pretty good. Was I wrong?'' She thought.


    A few memories came back to her in that moment, as she remembered all the times that she and Aqua got into a fight, and that was especially the case after the arranged marriage with the FireGod Empire was finalized.


    ''... Has our rtionship really soured enough that she started imagining a marriage with a man she barely knew?''


    After that thought entered her mind, she turned her head back up to Azmond before she said, "I-I still don''t believe you! I love my daughter, and she loves me, so why would she do such a thing!?"


    "Have you actually tried talking to her like a mother and not as a ruler in the past year?" He asked.


    "Of course I have-" She stopped herself as she tried to remember a time when she had a proper conversation with her daughter.


    "..." Azmond looked at the disgruntled look on her face, as he already knew the answer to that question, so he said, "You see? I know you care about your daughter, but you need to show it instead of merely feeling it."


    "B-But how do I do that when she no longer talks to me?" Marina asked with a devastated look on her face.


    She didn''t know how her killing the man in front of her turned into a therapy session, but she was too distracted with the matter concerning her daughter to even care.


    Azmond looked at that distraught expression she had on as he sighed a little and replied, "Just open up to her a little. For starters, maybe take off that crown when talking to her."


    He pointed his finger at the gaudy golden crown that was centered on the top of her head.


    "???" Marina followed his finger and looked at the family heirloom that had been passed down in her household for many generations.


    "Do I really need to take this off when I talk to my daughter?" She questioned.


    "If you want to mend what has been cracked over the years, then I would suggest you do it. But if you want to keep the same iffy rtionship you have with her, then do whatever you want," he replied.


    "..." Marina heard his response before she thought it over for a second and took the crown off her head with trembling hands.


    She was told by her mother to never take the crown off in front of other people, but now she was doing just that on the words of a man who she came out to kill


    Azmond observed the way Marina appeared without her ostentatious crown on and couldn''t help but blurt out, "Beautiful."


    "Y-Your flirtatiousments won''t work on me" She mumbled with a blush.


    "You''re still a perverted yboy in my eyes! I''m simply asking you these questions before I kill you, so don''t get the wrong idea!" She added.


    "... Is that so?" Azmond inquired with a sh*t-eating grin.


    He didn''t know why, but he was bing quite fond of this tsundere Milf, who had been on his mind for a while now.


    "St-Stop giving me that look, you bastard! I can still kill you if I really want to! ...But if you could tell me how else I could be closer with my daughter" She murmured thest part with embarrassment in her voice.


    "Heh~" Azmond chuckled a little after seeing that shameless look on her face.


    He moved his muscr figure a little closer to the frazzled Milf, as he felt like he should keep close skinship if he wanted to continue his ''lecture''.


    And that''s exactly what he did, as he slid behind the jittery woman, put his mouth right next to her ear, and whispered, "Are you sure you want to know what you can do to improve your rtionship with Aqua~?"


    "!?" She felt a presence near her, but it was already toote as his hot breath mingled with her earlobe, causing her to moan, "Aahn~!"


    Marina attempted to cover her mouth with her hand; however, before she was able to get it all the way up, arge, veiny hand sped her own.


    "Your voice is so pretty~, don''t you think you should let the world hear such a melody when it''s at its finest~?"


    Azmond''s honeyed words dripped into her ears as she lost sense of reason for a second, but it didn''t take long for her to snap out of it as she said, "G-Get off me, you yboy pervert!"


    She tried to get out of his grasp a few times; however, she quickly figured out that she couldn''t move an inch out of the seemingly inescapable grip of the Half-Step Soul Transformation Realm man before her!


    ''Wait! Half-Step Soul Transformation!? Wasn''t he just at the Middle Stages of Nascent Soul, not even a few months ago!?'' She thought with an astonished look on her face.