Chapter 220 In-laws 2
"They did not dare complain to Beatrice due to my daughter's fearsome reputation which is just as tyrannical as her mother's, but they sure did not have any qualms storming our little manor here and lodging one complaint after the other," Augeus stated with a thin smile, but Dante could detect the hint of anger and coldness within.
That was something Beatrice had also told him, about how Augeus was one without superpowers, and while his SDI was impressive, it wasn't groundbreaking. He was clan head due to his immense connections, political and financial wit, as well as his inheritance from his own father who was the previous clan head.
As such, he did not have that fear-inducing deterrence on clan members like his wife or his daughter, which was surely a sore spot for the man.
"It was quite annoying to deal with them at the time, but they were soon silenced by the reports of your superpowers grading at the SSS Rank. After all, even my wife Portia, only had three S-grade superpowers but she was able to dominate and grow so much," Augeus continued with a smirk.
Dante was not surprised but he felt disdain. The Eternal Academy during orientation had stated that the information would not leak and that they would deal with anyone who dared to spread it, but the entire universe already knew.
"After that was a period of silence for a while as they seemed to understand why Beatrice chose you and gave you so much, and even I myself was deeply astounded. From complaints came praises to my daughter's foresight and planning."
"This left me pleased and happy until you began to display more of your exceptional nature. When you set the various factions off with your explosive superpower's growth, we began to celebrate. The fruits from the Zero Gate were surely going to fall into our hands and the clan would prosper."
Augeus smiled playfully. "In fact, they had even sent me documents and propositions on how to split the fruits you acquired and which clan juniors were most deserving of them."
"I allowed them to get into full swing and excite themselves on a very beautiful future until I finally responded and told them that we cannot adhere to anything they proposed. This led to great dissatisfaction with me, wondering if I was trying to hog all the fruits for the main branch."
"However, I had the great pleasure to remind them to look at the contract we signed with you. You should have seen the faces of those damned elders when they read it and their expression changed from indignation to shock then horror."
"They finally realized that in the contract Beatrice gave you, you were not obligated to do anything but marry her! You had no obligations to the clan but received all those benefits; could you imagine how furious they were? Hahaha!" Augeus couldn't help but laugh heartily, making Beatrice roll her eyes and Aunt Zest shake her head.
"When they complained, I told them to take it up with Beatrice, and they shut up immediately as if someone had squeezed their throats. Complain to the one who secured the benefits and extravagant lifestyles? Were they mad? They could only swallow it in."
Augeus sighed helplessly. "But this is where the problems began. While we know you have no obligations to us, all the other powers, including the Prime Human Council, do not know so. They believe that we will be the direct beneficiaries of your hard work, so we have been pestered openly and covertly by them over the past few months."
"They have basically tried every approach in the book to secure some fruits for themselves, but what can we do but slap our foreheads and make up stories? After all, putting aside clan rules that prevent sharing such information, how can we tell the world about this embarrassing matter where you, Dante, eat without paying the bill?"
"However, things got worse last month when your physical results were released. Not only were we shocked, but so was the entire universe. Putting aside how you grew to be so strong in such a short period of time, the other factions panicked for two reasons."
"Firstly, this meant that even without superpowers, you could likely destroy all the other students in the Zero Gate and acquire all the fruits yourself. Your recent results last week from the mock world have only buttressed this further."
"Secondly, they see the air of Portia and Beatrice on you, in terms of becoming a behemoth of martial power that technology cannot easily deal with, and they really do not want to have to deal with another like those two."
"So since last month, a lot of pressure has fallen upon the clan's shoulder to make you give up some of the fruits you would inevitably get for all sorts of reasons. They have even resorted to darker and more forceful methods but do not dare to go too far for fear of causing Beatrice to retaliate," Augeus revealed with a hint of fatigue.
There was a short spell of silence as Dante digested this information as well as why Augeus told him this. Augeus glanced at Dante and leaned forward slowly after wiping his lips with a napkin.
"You're probably wondering why I said all this, especially since you will find out in due time as you integrate more into our clan, right? Well, the answer is simple, so simple that I can tell you here and now."
Dante glanced at the serious Augeus who had none of his casual demeanor from before. "The reason is that whether it is the matter of the clan's internals, the school, the Zero Gate, and the universe at large, all these problems and issues can easily be solved as long as my wife and your mother-in-law is here to back you up!"
Dante was speechless and finally understood everything. He had previously thought to himself that Augeus should be pining for his wife and would not waste a single second resurrecting her when he got the chance.
However, when Dante arrived, the fellow first invited them to a prepared dinner before talking about some things Dante honestly did not much care about. It turned out that the reason was that Augeus was worried that Dante was not truly invested in reviving Portia and would only half-ass it to please Beatrice and go.
So he wanted to give Dante logical reasons to invest in resurrecting Portia, which was quite sensible and made Dante respect the approach his father-in-law used. He didn't use any bullshit methods like moral shaming or even begging.
He simply presented the situation and showed how Dante could benefit from Portia's existence and resurrection. He chose the most appropriate and foolproof method that would work on anybody regardless of their personality; benefits for oneself.
The part that left Dante amused was that he and Beatrice had already long discussed this and made a similar conclusion, that Portia would definitely be his best backer in the universe, especially when he created his faction.
Beatrice wanted her mother back, but she didn't want to use Dante's feelings for her as a hostage to demand ransom in the form of revival, so she used a similar approach to her father. Whatever the case, using such a means left him with a good impression of his father-in-law, so Dante stood up.
"Father-in-law, enough wasting time. Let's bring my mother-in-law back and reunite this family forever!" Dante declared while taking out the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix and giving it to Augeus.
Augeus was left tongue-tied as he held the miraculous item that would bring back his wife, and even with superpowers himself or any mystical ability, he could easily feel the specialness of the nirvana fire.
His eyes became wet, and he wiped them slowly as he got up and nodded to Dante seriously. Aunt Zest seemed deeply moved and did not know how to thank Dante while Beatrice just smiled with deep love and affection in her eyes.
The group moved through the manor with a purpose, going down below to an underground room with many high-tech apparatus. It looked like a futuristic sci-fi lab replete with glass chambers full of strange things and a cylindrical tank in the center with a body floating within.
Looking at it, Dante immediately knew it was Portia because the woman within was simply Beatrice if you aged her up by 10 years. If that woman came to Dante and said she was Beatrice from the future, he would believe it without a doubt.
Aunt Zest seemed saddened. "Madam…"
Beatrice was teary-eyed as she glanced at the corpse that was being preserved in the tank. "Mama…"
"My love, I will soon be with you again." Augeus muttered as he walked up to the tank and injected the nirvana fire into the panel on the side.
Immediately, the fire shot into the tank and surged through the liquid nanites until it enveloped the body of Portia Portinari and began its resurrection process.
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