1000x Random Returns: Investing in My Crippled Demon Wives!

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Bribed into Seven Minutes of Pure Persistence! (bonus Chapter)

They stumbled out of the training room together, Lucien drenched head to toe, Aurelia annoyingly composed despite the hours of sparring together and beating the shit put pf him.

”I think I understand why you train every morning now,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow.

”And?”

”I hate it.”

She smiled. ”You’ll get used to it after a while.”

They headed for the master bathroom, and Lucien caught himself staring more than once as they washed off the morning’s efforts together.

Water glistening and tracing over her toned muscle, the faint shimmer of her marriage tattoo catching the light.

”You’re doing it again, husband” Aurelia said, not opening her eyes.

”Doing what?”

”Staring.”

”I’m appreciating my wife.”

”Very generous of you.”

She pulled him closer anyway, and what followed was slow and warm, kisses stolen between rinses, teasing traded back and forth.

The kind of easy intimacy that hadn’t existed between them more than a week ago and now felt entirely natural.

---

Afterward, Aurelia retreated to her room to use the last of the magical plants and resources Lucien had given her.

She arranged them carefully rather than simply consuming them, crushing several petals them into a fine paste, mixing it with warm water and soaking in the mixture the way she’d first done.

Not before consuming the remaining elixirs she had not used yet.

She felt the familiar thread of warmth work through her body, mana veins responding sluggishly but unmistakably being repaired.

’It’s still working,’ she thought, watching a faint crimson glow pulse beneath her skin.

’It might be slow, but atleast it’s working.’

’And where does he keep getting these things from even?’

’These are incredible for their ranks, something only higher ranked resources provide and those are the extremely rare and expensive ones to acquire.’

She let the question go, the way she’d learned to.

’He’ll tell me when he’s ready, or he won’t, and I’ll be with him anyway.’

---

Lucien found Seraphina in one of the estate’s spare rooms, now thoroughly converted into a small alchemy workshop.

Potion bottles lining shelves, dried herbs hanging in bundles and notebooks stacked beside careful rows of measuring tools.

”What’s all this?” he asked, peering over her shoulder.

”Alchemy.” She said not even turning around, fully focused on whatever she was doing.

”So, like making potions?” He said.

Her eyes lit up instantly hearing his reply.

”Potion-making’s only one part of alchemy,” she said, already pulling out a vial to demonstrate.

”Real alchemy is about understanding mana reactions, how different elements interact, purification methods, extraction techniques, medicinal compatibility and various other things.”

She kept going, animated in a way he rarely saw from her, hands moving quickly between ingredients as she explained.

’She’s completely different talking about this,’ Lucien thought, genuinely charmed.

’Usually so soft-spoken, right now she could out-talk Aurelia on weapon types.’

”Why do you like alchemy, though?” he asked eventually. ”Out of everything you could’ve done and learnt?”

She paused, the enthusiasm dimming slightly.

”Because I wanted to heal myself,” she said quietly.

”After my condition got worse, my family stopped really investing in me, not fully out of cruelty.”

”They just decided I was a lost cause and not worth the resources.” She set the vial down carefully.

”So I started studying alchemy on my own after that, I thought maybe I could find a way to fix what my bloodline and talent couldn’t.”

Lucien’s chest tightened. ”What do you need? To actually make progress, I mean. Like some more plants or equipment?”

She brightened slightly, listing it off better equipment, various common, uncommon and rare medicinal herbs that he’d never heard of, purification crystals, proper alchemy manuals, higher-grade mana water, an actual alchemy furnace instead of the makeshift setup she’d cobbled together.

’Adding all of that to the list to get,’Lucien thought, filing it away carefully.

’Whatever it takes to make her happy.’

---

Downstairs, he found Evelisse exactly where he expected, sprawled on the couch, surrounded by an alarming quantity of snacks.

”So no cultivating?” he asked.

”No.”

”And training?”

”Also no.”

”What about eating?”

She turned slowly. ”...Define eating.”

Lucien laughed and dropped onto the couch beside her, letting the TV chatter fill the silence for a moment.

”You know,” he said eventually, ”I was thinking about trying to make Fire-Infused Ifrit Choco Magma Cake sometime.”

Silence.

She swallowed hard, her mouth watering hearing him describe the cake.

Evelisse’s stomach growled, loud and unmistakable.

She instantly slammed both hands over her midsection, her face flushing a vivid scarlet.

She looked down at herself, betrayed.

Seraphina, passing through the hallway at exactly the wrong moment, paused. ”Was that your stomach?”

”...No.”

”Evelisse.”

”The couch did it.”

Lucien lost it entirely, laughing hard enough that Evelisse threw a pillow at his head.

---

”You’re cultivating,” he said, once he’d recovered.

”No.”

”Yes.”

”I’m busy.”

”You’re watching a rubber boy turn a dragon God into a skipping rope all the while laughing like a clown.”

”It’s educational.”

”Ten minutes,” Lucien said.

”No.”

”Twenty.”

”Absolutely not.”

”Thirty.”

”You’re negotiating like a villain.”

”Forty.”

”Stop — stop, this isn’t how negotiations work.”

”You cultivate,” Lucien said, ”and I make you something delicious afterward.”

Evelisse’s face warred visibly between principle and appetite.

Appetite won.

”...Fine,” she groaned. ”But this is blackmail, you’re the worst husband.”

”Got it as always, wife.”

He physically steered her toward her room, ignoring her continued complaints, and settled her into a proper meditation stance.

Correcting her posture and walking her through the parts of the technique she still fumbled, thanks to the instant comprehension the system had handed him when he’d claimed it originally.

’She’s actually got decent talent for this,’ he realized, watching her circulation smooth out under his guidance.

’She just hates sitting still long enough to use it.’

A few minutes later, Evelisse’s eyes snapped open.

”Wait,” she said. ”That wasn’t so bad, did an hour already pass?”

”You cultivated for seven minutes, Eve.”

She checked the clock.

”It felt like an hour.”

”Still got more than fifty minutes, Eve. Chop, chop the technique won’t work itself.”

”...I hate that you’re right.”

---

Lunch came together with noticeably more flair than usual, Roasted Flamebird, Crystal-Grain Butter Rice cooked with purified mana water, Mooncap Cream Soup.

And a Honey-Mana Berry Pudding that would have made Evelisse’s eyes go glassy with anticipation before she’d even taken a bite.

He finished plating everything and went to call the girls over, Aurelia reading some weapon manuals, Seraphina stillbusy concocting some potion and Evelisse back to watching that straw hat boy.

The moment the food their mouths, the system chime rang, as always.

[Ding!]

[Investment Detected: Roasted Flamebird (Rare)]

And like always, the mystery wheels appeared above each wife and started spinning before landing on their respective multiplier.

[Rewards Generated]

[Aurelia — ×25 — Reward: 8 Months Cultivation Progress]

[Seraphina — ×22 — Reward: Rare Alchemy Ingredient Pack]

[Evelisse — ×16 — Reward: 5 Months Cultivation Progress]

Lucien smiled to himself, tucking the rewards away.

’Cultivation progress for Evelisse seems like the System’s clearly rewarding me for her effort of actually sitting still for once.’

---

After lunch, he headed underground alone, weapon in hand, and settled into practice.

Footwork first long, sweeping steps that let the scythe’s curved blade trail naturally through the air.

Basic strikes next, then transitions between offense and guard, then finally weaving Blood Manipulation into the rhythm, thin threads coiling unseen around the weapon’s shaft as he moved.

As he practiced with his chosen weapon, he slowly got more used to it.

’Sword comprehension carries over more than I expected,’ he thought, adjusting his stance mid-swing.

’Footwork, spacing, timing none of that’s sword-specific. It’s just combat literacy so it applies here too.’

He checked his remaining Technique Comprehension, seven days left, patient and waiting.

’Not yet,’ he decided.

’I need an actual technique or manual for this weapon first, wasting the comprehension on guesswork would be criminal.’

’Next guild trip,I’ll definitely find a proper scythe manual, heck maybe a whole shop dedicated to combat techniques, if one exists which I’m certain of considering what world this is.’

He ran through another sequence, blade cutting clean arcs through empty air, and caught his own reflection in the polished floor.

’I’m getting stronger,’ he thought. ’Still nowhere near strong enough, though.’

’Aurelia was called the strongest genius of her generation. Seraphina stood at the top of her house before everything fell apart. And Evelisse—’

He paused.

’Well. Evelisse is Evelisse.’

’But all three of them have unfinished stories. If I actually want to help them reach what they should’ve been and even further, I need to reach the top myself there’s no way around that.’

He smiled slightly.

”It sounds expensive,” he murmured to the empty room.

A beat.

”Good thing I married three future monsters I can invest in.”

---

He turned back to the training dummy, weapon rising in one final clean arc.

THUD.

The dummy split cleanly down the middle, both halves toppling in opposite directions.

Lucien looked down at the weapon in his hands, still humming faintly from the motion.

”Yeah,” he said, satisfied.

”We’re going to get along just fine, you and me.”