Chapter 315 Kin
Later that night, I decided to go over to the mess hall just for the fun of it. The place was practically empty with only a select few being in there.
Kara, Kiara, Ulva, Arisu, Hefla, Shitsuke, Taiku, Oki, Tsuna, Yuuna, Shiroi and Kuro were all present there, seated around the massive table, with the most important spot vacant. Amethyst too was sulking behind my seat, and even cowered once she felt my presence.
‘That’s weird.’, I pointed out before taking a sit. The whole room felt oddly tense the moment I entered, but Ulva decided to speak to me like there was nothing different happening. She clearly wanted me to pamper her some bit, but now wasn’t the time.
Since the food hadn’t arrived, I felt like I had to say something to at least make the mood feel a bit lighter.
“Uhh… hm.”, I tried saying something, but nothing came to mind.
The way they’d made the mood alone was making it quite difficult to bring up any topics for conversation. I also didn’t want to read their individual minds because I was… admittedly a teeny tiny bit scared of what they could be thinking at the moment.
“Lady Hinotori, may I speak.”, The first person to break the silence was Tsuna. Her face had more cracks in it than I remembered, but then again, I didn’t have good memory to begin with.
She suddenly bowed down to me. “Thank you for bringing back Shitsuke like you promised. This may not sound convincing, but I’m really grateful.”
“Ah…”
Just then, all the other goblin captains stood up and bowed. Shitsuke, grinned, then bowed to me, before saying. “Truly, you are the best leader we could have ever asked for. Thank you for saving us, Kuro and I.”
“Indeed! Although Hell was fun, I must admit that harassing my sister is better.”, Kuro added in loudly, then whipped his sister with his tail.
“Huh?”, Shiroi, caught off guard by that snarled at her brother. “Want me to send you back down there?”
‘T-Thank you for saving me, master.’, Amethyst bashfully said. I reached back to pat her on the head.
She’d been feeling down for some reason, so the best I could do was console her with head pats, right?
“Big sis… I want head pats too.”, Ulva pouted, so I grabbed her with my free palm and patted her. She purred like some sort of kitten, making me retract my hand out of concern for a moment, before she grabbed it and continued patting her own head.
‘I… think there’s something wrong here, but I can’t put my finger on it.’
“Ehem.”, Cutting through the cluster of noises, was Kiara. The last person I expected to hear anything from or even see in this place when almost everybody was out.
“Yes, Kiara?”, I decided to give her my full attention.
“When will you be getting married to Kala?”
“!?”, Everyone’s eyes widened at her question. I myself, ended up coughing up quite a bit of saliva at the completely random question.
“K-Kiara!”, Embarassed, Kara shouted at her sister.
“Since you’ve impregnated her, I hope you intend to take care of both her and the baby.”
“Kinda blunt, don’t you think?”, She didn’t respond to my statement, and rather glared at me, waiting for a proper response from me. Warily, I directed my attention to Kara, who was fidgeting with a flushed face.
‘Oh come on! There’s no tact in this whatsoever.’, I glared back at Kiara, but she didn’t even flinch. In this staring contest, I eventually lost and had to say something.
Clearing my throat, I called out to Kiara.
“Y-Yes!?”, she yelped.
This whole interaction was becoming tedious and awkward. I’d assumed all her family members were well-versed in the art of social interaction, but clearly, Kiara wasn’t.
“So… you’re pregnant.”
“… Yes.”
“You’re going to be a mother soon.”
“… Yes.”
“That means I’m going to be a father soon.”
“… Huh? Y-Yes?”
“Interesting, huh?”
“Yes.”
“S-Sorry…”
“Huh?”
<<Sigh… say this…>>
The agent grew bored of this tiresome back and forth and decided to give me tips for this conversation.
I knew I wasn’t the best when it came to small talk, but I wasn’t aware that my conversational ability was this poor. No. It couldn’t be that. I was a great conversationalist, right? It was probably just because of the topic. Definitely because of the topic. Anyone would find it difficult to talk to a woman they impregnated accidentally, right? Right?
“Kara.”, I started to repeat what the agent said to me. The ogress yelped, then looked at me with rasp attention. “Thank you for letting me experience this with you. Thank you for giving over your body so that we can embark on this life-changing journey together.”
… Something didn’t feel right about what the agent was feeding me.
“Thank you for helping me to become a parent. Ah what the heck is this!?”
I snapped, having actually listened to the words I was saying. Everyone on the table was shocked by my sudden outburst and looked at me weirdly. Clearly, the only reason they weren’t saying anything was because I was technically their boss.
Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my neck, cleared my throat, then decided to say something, that felt less embarrassing and had some heart to it. But first, I wasn’t going to say this in front of all of these guys.
I grabbed Kara by the hand and teleported us out of there. I had no particular location in mind so we were in the sky, right above the mansion. In front of us, we could see two full moons, basking us in their beautiful glow. Below, around the mansion and further beyond that, several races sat by campfires, eating and conversing. The day after the war wasn’t a celebration, but rather a peaceful, quiet time everybody took to relax and enjoy themselves.
“See, Kara. I’m not really good at these sorts of things.”, I started, returning my gaze to her. She hadn’t even looked around a single bit and her eyes were stuck on me. Glowing a faint blue as they dazzled. Her hair fluttered in the breeze and our faces were separated by barely 10 inches as I held her close to keep her from falling.
“It’s embarrassing to say this, but, I’m really happy that you’re going to have my kid. I mean, I’m nervous about this. It’ll be my firs- uh, second time? I don’t know if Maou counts, but that brat sure as hell is convinced. I guess, what I’m trying to say is, just like you, this’ll be my first time, so please forgive me.”
After masterfully expressing my honest opinions on the matter, I ended up apologising to her. Anyway I looked at it, this whole pregnancy thing wasn’t fair for her.
I invited her to go dungeon exploring with me. It’s my fault she got caught in that trap and ended up getting pregnant. All of that happened because I was reckless. This was suddenly forced unto her and I was too scared to bring up the subject because I knew I was in the wrong.
“Ah… why would I need to forgive you?”, Rather than being angry or anything, Kara looked confused.
“I mean, aren’t you angry that you got pregnant?”
“Hm? No. Why would I be?”, Looking into her, I couldn’t find a trace of a lie. She was being completely serious.
“Eh? I thought… but… what?”
I was dumb, wasn’t I? Maybe it was time for me to have these heavy conversations. Things just might not be so difficult in life.
“Fufu. I’m happy that I can give birth to your baby. At least, I’ve found a way to be useful to you.”
For a moment, my heart skipped a bit. I could feel blood rushing to my face and my ears heating up.
‘Ah… Kara’s actually kind of cute.’, I hadn’t really seen in her in that sort of light before.
“Y-Your hair! It’s on fire!”, She yelled bringing to attention the fact that my cowlicks had been set ablaze and were twitching violently.
“A-Ah. [Water Ball].” I doused my own head in water, allowing me to cool down. Kara laughed at me.
“I just lost some cool points, I guess.”
“N-No… you are still cool.”, She said, looking away and holding back her laughter. Just for the fun of it, I sprayed a bit of water on her too.
“Now we’re both cool.”, I smirked at her as she pouted.
‘Victory is mine!’
“Well, let’s do well as parents then.”
“Y-Yeah.”
I teleported us back to the mess hall and everyone looked at us, anxiously expecting some sort of giveaway that our conversation went well. When I confirmed it, Tsuna, Yuuna and Kiara were all over me, asking us for the details on how things went.
Even if they weren’t human, I guess there were certain topics that all girls simply enjoyed.
The kobold servants marched in, trays of food in hand. I didn’t take a single bite though, out of fear of starting a hunger pang again. Later that night, Kara’s status changed from servant to kin. Someway down the line, the [Member] role changed to [Kin].
***
In an unknown location, a meeting was ongoing between a group of six people.
These people were the elite of the elite of a group known as The Cardinals. The Cardinals were the highest-ranking officers of the Dark Church, each, masters of various practices ranging from espionage, to martial combat to warfare stratagem. Officially, there were only 12 cardinals, and a meeting was usually not held without all members present, but an exception had to be made for this one instance.
“I swear, if I catch 5, I’ll rip him to shreds!”, One of the members yelled to the room. He smashed his fist into the wall before him and seethed with rage. This was Cardinal 3 of the Dark Church.
“4, 6 and 7 are on their way to the [Divine] are about a week’s journey away from the [Divine]’s location, according to the Head.”, Cardinal 12 informed, ignoring 3’s outrage as it wasn’t anything new to their meetings.
“What about Cardinal 5 and his treachery?”, Cardinal 10 asked with a heavy tone.
Cardinal Five. The most damaging part to their entire operation. A bug none of them had seen throwing a wrench into their whole plan. With his treachery, he coveted two-thirds of the Dark Church’s forces and reduced the Cardinals from 12 to 9. Cardinal 5, Cardinal 11 and Cardinal 8 were now removed from the list of Cardinals.
“What does he matter once the [Divine] is in our hands?”, Cardinal 2 retorted.
“It matters a lot. Is the [Divine] truly so mighty that it would be able to defeat a god at this age?”, He asked.
“Of course. The [Divine] has defeated multiple gods before. What makes you assume it wouldn’t be able to do the same again?”, Cardinal 2 glared at 10. The latter didn’t back down from the contest, and instead added,
“The [Divine] hasn’t even had a year to grow. Sending it into a fight right now, the [Divine] could di-”
“Hold your tongue before you say something akin to heresy.”, Cardinal 12 cut him off before he could finish his sentence. Intense animosity was directed at him from Cardinal 4, making him back down a bit.
“All I’m saying is, perhaps relying on the [Divine] to deal with this is perhaps a bit selfish of us.”, Carefully altering his words to avoid offending anybody, Cardinal 10 explained himself.
“Indeed it is. However, our quest for the [Divine] has been going on for over 2 centuries now. We don’t have time to waste.” Cardinal 1, the oldest of the Cardinals spoke up for the first time in forever.
His voice caused everyone present to turn silent and listen to him. He walked to the centre of the room.
“‘Cardinals 5, 8 and 11 have betrayed us and have coaxed a majority of our forces with the promise of god-like power for each and every single one of them. This is an emergency of the highest order. All resources shall be put into aiding the [Divine] for it is our last hope.’ Is what the Head has ordered.”, Word for word, Cardinal 1 repeated the order he’d been given from the Head of the Dark Church.
“As his Eminence wishes it.”, in unison, the cardinals present said, then bowed.
For those who weren’t too pleased with the order, there was nothing they could do or say that wouldn’t be counted as treason.
The Dark Church… the original Dark Church, was making its move.
<A/N: I’m writing this note, before I’ve even finished the chapter cause, uh, I’m not sure what to write for this chapter because there’s lots of things to set up before the next arc begins. We’ll see where it goes.
#Update 1: I’m going to watch a show called “The Glory”. I’ll write after I finish the first episode.
#Update 2: … Damn, I’m so frustrated with the antagonists of the story after the first episode alone. Irredeemable trash!
Welp, Tori had to have this conversation sooner or later. I was meant to write this chapter 2 days ago, but here I am, now finishing it. And it wasn’t even because of a creative block… My managements skills are just bad, LOL. I’m going to eat some noodles. Have a good day.>
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