"Are you okay?" After communications were restored and Beatrice once again saw Louis's face, her originally tense expression finally relaxed, and she let out a long sigh.

"Sorry, for making you worry."

Seeing his wife's expression, he felt somewhat guilty as well.

This operation to besiege the Cosmic Serpent was primarily led by Louis.

Because Beatrice couldn't leave the Empire at the moment.

The Eye of Truth's inheritance ceremony had officially begun. To quickly ascend to a Demigod, Beatrice needed to merge with the kingdom's fortune and couldn't leave Tino City.

So Louis seized the opportunity to go.

At the time, Beatrice was anxious to break through and leave.

But the responsibility as an emperor made her anxiously sit on the throne, each day feeling as long as a year.

"Louis, don't ever do that again," Beatrice said with teary eyes, "You know what I mean, you went there on purpose, right?"

Louis said nothing.

His little scheme had been seen through by Beatrice.

Yes.

He didn't want Beatrice or Olivia to be involved in the battlefield against the Cosmic Serpent.

Because in terms of individual power, the Cosmic Serpent was unparalleled among the seven great calamities.

In such a situation, participating in this battle had a very high chance of death.

You could even say it was like "randomly choosing lucky ones to die suddenly."

To put it bluntly, during the siege of the Cosmic Serpent, who would die depended entirely on which target that monster decided to attack.

Once targeted, death was inevitable.

The same went for Louis.

His survival was not because he was strong, but because he had the ability to revive.

"I'm sorry, but you can't come."

"... Is it because I'm the Emperor of Ense?"

"It's because you're my wife," Louis said calmly. "As your husband, I would never allow my wife to face such danger. It's a husband's duty to protect his wife."

At these words, Beatrice's tears became uncontrollable.

She sobbed softly, "I'm sorry, if only I could be stronger."

Louis raised an eyebrow and said, "Aren't you getting stronger now?"

Although Beatrice was initially somewhat sad, hearing his words made her laugh despite herself.

"You're such a tease."

Louis chuckled and said, "Have you felt your husband's strength?"

When he said this, his tone was roguish with a hint of smugness.

The effects of [Chaste Desire] had long been bestowed upon Beatrice and Olivia.

So when he ascended, tens of thousands of miles away, Beatrice began to follow Louis's increase in strength, sharing this growth process.

Louis finally understood the true value of the Seven Deadly Sins.

He also understood why, after a part of this power was taken from the Abyss by Star Continent, the Abyss would persistently oppose Star Continent.

Just think about Louis's Soldier Realm, oh no, it had now been renamed from Soldier Tomb to Soldier Realm by Louis.

The Soldier Realm was vast, far exceeding the demiplane of an ordinary Demigod.

To date, there had been a few methods that could directly cause a Demigod's demiplane to expand exponentially.

But the sin of Lust had achieved that.

Directly granting Beatrice half a world.

And as Louis's Soldier Realm continued to grow, Beatrice and the little swan's demiplane would also grow rapidly.

By then, the whole family would be incredibly overpowered.

And don't forget, neither Beatrice nor Olivia are just eating idle meals.

Beatrice was about to inherit the power of the Eye of Truth.

Olivia was blessed by the sin of Sloth.

Their own strength was not weak, and with the shared blessing from the sin of Lust, the speed at which their strength increased would perhaps give them the chance to approach or even surpass Louis.

Louis found this quite amusing.

The stronger, the better!

If they were stronger, perhaps with the help of his main wife and sister-in-law, even a darkened sister-in-law, oh no, now there was an extra bad woman, they'd have the opportunity to suppress their opponents.

As for something like "turning into a playboy" to mass-produce powerful allies, that was simply impossible.

Because the conditions weren't there.

He had mentioned before that the effects of [Chaste Desire] and [Crown of Soul Desire] were the most complex among the sins he had observed.

Especially the Crown of Soul Desire.

The crown it condensed could only be born every five levels, meaning that even now Louis could only coalesce it five times.

Beatrice, the little swan, the black swan, and now, Alice.

The places were practically full.

Not to mention, Louis was not idly desperate to find a woman he had no feelings for to take up space.

"How is the Eye of Truth's inheritance ceremony?" Louis refocused his attention on Beatrice.

Beatrice nodded and said, "The effect is better than I imagined. Originally, there was a challenge regarding the demiplane, but now..."

Louis laughed heartily, "Looks like I'm the timely rain this time."

Beatrice said with a smile, "So when do you plan to come back to see me?"

Louis then realized that he, having not seen his wife in so long, had let the conversation drift away.

He spoke about the countries' requests for his assistance to escort them back to their homelands.

"Beatrice, what are your thoughts?"

Whether or not to escort them back was not just a simple escort issue.

Louis needed Beatrice to assess any potential political risks.

In this area, he was indeed not as knowledgeable as Beatrice.

A lot of this knowledge required exposure to the larger context to know how to handle it.

And in this area, Louis had significant gaps.

In fact, even though some years had passed in this world, he still wasn't very integrated into the noble circle.

In such circumstances, only Beatrice knew how to deal with relationships with various countries.

Beatrice thought for a moment and began discussing the different countries' situations with Louis.

"Beidilak once had a period of friendship with us, but with the advent of the new millennium, a rift has formed between us. This time, we can take the opportunity to mend it a bit."

"West Chris had been too closely aligned with us in the past. In the current situation, getting closer would intensify other countries' concerns over our leading intentions. We might consider putting their transportation last."

"The Bazakla Tribe? When did they gain the strength to join this siege? Check their composition."

"The Marklin Garden? They just established a nation, right? Did they send out their Demigod? Betting their national fortune! We can look after them a bit."

...

The two of them alternated, determining this escort's list together.

But one thing was certain, they had agreed on assisting countries with escorting.

Of course, a key point was that Louis wasn't entirely comfortable with them taking the materials back themselves.

In truth, neither he nor the countries that invited him considered the compensatory materials as crucial.

The focus was on the fear of being plundered by others.

If it was just ordinary people plundering, it was tolerable. However, if the ones targeting them were the hidden troublemakers creating chaos, they might push the already precarious conditions of the countries into an abyss.

Understanding this, they indeed were willing to pay a certain price for stability.

As for how reliable Ense was...

To be honest, after seeing the current Louis and his Curse Binding Legion, they had no further doubts.

Firmly pressing this side was the right decision.

This was an undeniable strength they could not question.

If even with such a protective lineup something happened, they would accept their fate.

Thus, when Louis announced the list to the present nations the next day, the response was predictably euphoric.

They had only hoped, but they hadn't really expected Ense to agree.

Previously, they thought that even if they agreed, perhaps only a small part of the guard would be sent.

But they never expected that Louis, this top powerhouse of Ense, would personally choose to escort them.

In an instant, an unprecedented joy filled their minds.

Ense, how righteous!