We had reached some form of agreement with Ashema but the details still had to be negotiated. Lilith volunteered for the job, which was fine by me. Meluza told us that Ashema had been watching our fights, which I found reassuring. We had demonstrated enough power that it was unlikely that she would come after us. Especially if our deal with her was not too harsh and offered her some advantages.

  We had dealt with Ashema, but there was still Pazuzu. Lilith promised me she would take care of it and inform me if violence was needed, which seemed unlikely. So I found myself with some free time and no impending doom.

  "We should take a day off and relax." I said.

  "Good idea, how about a hot spring?" Lucy suggested.

  "I like it! Do you mean our baths at home, or a proper natural hot spring? Damn, I wanted to build a proper one near our town." I replied.

  "I am sure there is one near us, we can travel pretty fast, after all. Lilith has one, right?" Lucy asked.

  "She has bragged about hell's waters before. I am not sure if they survived the fighting but we can check."

  When we returned to Lilith's city I did feel a bit guilty, seeing all the destruction. We would be relaxing while others had to rebuild. However, we did win the fight with a minimal loss of life and nobody would be going hungry. And there was a tiny positive effect, a lot of demons now stayed in our town. That meant mortals were mingling with demons, demons who had just fought and died for them, in a way. It would really help to forge bonds.

  We were lucky and a nice little hot spring had survived the carnage, although a friendly succubus told us that there would be no staff, since everyone was busy.

  That was fine, being alone with Lucy sounded nice, and I did have an inventory full of snacks and drinks. The hot spring was a little bit out of the city in a small rocky area. Magic had been used to carve pools into the stone and we picked a nice and hot one. We could see the palace and the ruins of the city surrounding it while we floated in the water.

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  "We should hold a victory feast." Lucy suggested.

  "Yes, but should we do it right away or wait until the worst rubble has been cleared?" I wondered.

  "We should do it soon. It would bolster morale further. We should have lots of nice food stalls, music, dancing… A nice little celebration inside the ruins." Lucy replied.

  "Hm. Maybe we could even add some drawings with plans for the rebuilding. Hey, I should talk with Lilith about the electrical root system. I think with Haruka's growth we could deploy it here as well. And perhaps we can increase the quality of the houses." I mused.

  "Sure, but aside from your lofty rebuilding plans we should focus on a celebration first. The people deserve some fun and we have the money to pay for a grand feast. We should make all the food free during the celebration." Lucy suggested.

  "I like the idea!" I agreed. "Speaking of celebrations, we now have some time to plan our wedding."

  "Ohhh, I like the sound of that." Lucy smiled and floated lazily towards me. I was sitting inside the water on a stone and she floated into my lap. I took her in my arms and enjoyed the fluffy tails between our bodies as she leaned her back against my chest.

  "Do you want a big feast? We need great food and I think we should hire Thessia to marry us, but who do we invite?" I asked.

  Lucy sighed. "We are rather important, I believe a lot of people will expect an invitation. But we are rather powerful so it's not like they can do anything if they feel snubbed."

  "Hm. Maybe we invite the dwarven royalty, the elven royalty and some friends? We will have to invite the Duke of Iron Rock as well, I suppose. Maybe some others? Damn, I don't want it to be huge and impersonal." I muttered.

  "I am sure the night afterwards will be very personal." Lucy purred.

  "Hehehe. Then all those tails will be forever mine." I replied, while fighting a blush.

  Lucy turned her head around and looked into my eyes. "They already are."

  Then we kissed. Afterwards Lucy settled back into my arms and rested her head on my shoulder. It was really relaxing. After all the troubles, all the fighting, we finally had peace. At least for now. I could focus on the wedding, on my projects and on building a better future. Our town had a lot of room to grow and could use more of my attention. The train needed to be finished and finalised as well. I also needed more people, especially fey, I could send to Iron Rock. Perhaps I should try to teach a class there myself? No, that would be too much work. Perhaps I could hold a special lecture on something?

  At first I wanted to finalise our wedding though, it was time to make it official. Lucy was the woman I wanted to spend eternity with, and eternity was a real possibility for us. The thought filled me with excitement. There were a lot of wonders for us to discover, a lot of foods to taste and new friends to meet. And maybe a fight or two against monsters.

  As the sun started to set we took advantage of the empty hot spring. We certainly had a really enjoyable evening.