Chapter 295: Jaelyn’s Question
"When you leave here, do me a favour and go over to the Qaroth Realm’s ’Catacombs of the Furious Hounds’ and help me get one of the Moonstone Crowns guarded by the Hell dogs there."
And Arthur’s reply to that question:
"The Fuck?! Why should I do that?"
The boy genuinely did not understand why she suddenly asked him that. Besides, Arthur knew how dangerous the Hell dogs in the Catacombs of the Furious Hound were.
Even the weakest ones were at least Superior Stage Legendries, and they didn’t move alone. No way he’d want to go to a place where he could get ganged up on by multiple Legendary Realm Double headed hell dogs.
However, despite his rejection, the smile on Jaelyn’s face didn’t fade. She held a hand over her mouth, but that was not enough to prevent Arthur from seeing the amused grin that spread out on her face.
"...I think it’s high time I went to find-"
*VUP!
"To think ’Spring’ has arrived for your Highness."
The second before Jaelyn’s words rang out, someone teleported right into the room, holding a bunch of files and artifacts stacked up so high they blocked the person’s upper body from view, but Arthur knew who it was without having to see their face.
"Huh?"
The pile of files landed on the table right after, while the person turned to Arthur and asked.
"What’s she talking about?"
"Trust me, Mother. I have zero idea what in the Cosmos it could possibly mean."
Arthur replied to his mother’s question with a look of pure confusion on his face as even he didn’t understand what was going on.
Cattleya then turned towards Jaelyn and narrowed her eyes at the woman, her senses picking up on the residual wisps of the law energies of lust and love in the area.
"Wait up! Did you pull that trick on Arthur?!"
Having realised what had just happened, Cattleya asked with a loud voice, snapping Jaelyn out of her little daze.
"Hmm? I did, but guess what?"
"I’m not guessing any-"
"It didn’t work."
"...Pardon?"
Arthur looked at the two women who were having some sort of incomprehensible conversation in front of him, before turning to Inglis who was sorting through the files she told Cattleya to get for her and asked what was up.
"Jaelyn used an ability of her Lust Authority, mixed with a bit of the essence of the law of love and infused it in her voice when she spoke to you.
With the amount of energy she used, it should be able to make any man, woman or beast under the Sovereign realm do her bidding, no questions asked.
Of course, she can still make you do her bidding without this but this little skill was created out of her mischievous nature and desire to meddle in people’s relationships, hence the reason why she made it in a way that it would not work if the target falls under a certain category."
Inglis’ hands never stopped moving as she spoke, her pupils darting around the large files filled with research data about her previous homunculus creation attempts.
"And what’s this category?"
"Those who have another person in their hearts—as she calls it.
Basically, someone who’s in love with another person."
"...and I refused what she asked me to do."
"Indeed, you did.
On a side note, when Jaelyn asked your mother this sometime around 9000 years ago, she ended up going to an Abysmal Crypt to fight off Shadow manes in an e-"
"Mum!!"
"..."
The Leviathan Devil who casually spilt her daughter’s dark history to her grandson was cut-off halfway, while Arthur took a moment to dwell on what his being able to reject Jaelyn’s earlier request truly entailed.
Without hesitation, he silently tried to get up from his seat and wanted to leave the lab, but Jaelyn’s hand landed on his shoulder and pushed him back down on his seat.
"Hold on for a bit, your highness. We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?"
Jaelyn’s grin as she spoke was spreading from ear to ear and the amused glint in her eyes made Arthur instinctively want to run.
Unfortunately, it was too late as Cattleya’s attention had turned back to him.
"Who is she, Arthur?"
".... Can I not have this conversation with you, mother?"
His last attempt at resistance was only met with silence from Cattleya and he understood that she wasn’t going to give in until he talked.
Cattleya could claim she was the person who knew her son best, after all, the both of them were very similar in both the good and bad ways.
So, the woman was filled with nothing but genuine curiosity about who the girl that managed to make her son fall was.
A lot of things had happened in the past two years after, and Arthur had a little attitude adjustment, reined in his little arrogance and had a change in views about certain matters.
His view on Romance was one of said matters.
And ever since he stopped forcefully repressing that side of himself, the boy had indeed caught feelings for a certain someone.
Just that he was very proficient at hiding what he was really thinking with his carefree attitude, so no one around him had been able to figure this out.
And now, under the pressure of Jaelyn and Cattleya, the boy had no choice but to talk.
"Well...for starters, it’s someone I’m very close to. One of the very few people who can actually rein me in when I go overboard."
"So, you are self-aware?"
"Of course, I am. Isn’t that the same with you?"
"Keep that for later and let’s return to the main topic."
Jaelyn cut Cattleya and Arthur’s little Q\A short and made the boy continue speaking.
Though he was vague about a lot of things and didn’t explicitly state who he was, the two women were aware of almost everyone in Arthur’s circle of close friends so they were able to zero in on who it was without him saying it...or so they thought.
Inglis who had gone back to tinkering with the homunculus’ arm while referencing the research files Cattleya brought was also listening in.
Well, she wasn’t really paying attention to him, it’s just that she was currently using her ’Parallel Thoughts’ skill that enable her to compute dozens of thought processes simultaneously.
But since she wasn’t using all the thought process channels at once, the free ones automatically paid attention to the nearest things around her and one of them was focused on Arthur’s words so though she wasn’t exactly paying attention to his words, she knew exactly all he was saying.
When he was done, Jaelyn had an expression of light surprise on her face as she spoke.
"I didn’t know you liked Conrad’s daughter that much."
Her words made Arthur’s expression turn strange as he looked at her and asked reflexively.
"Who said I was talking about Layla?"
"HUH?"
"Huh?"
"...huh?"
Even Inglis who wasn’t really paying attention also reacted with mild surprise as they all thought Arthur had been talking about Layla all this while.
Upon seeing their surprised expressions, Arthur realised they all had a misunderstanding and his words made them realise they had guessed wrongly.
But he wasn’t about to stick around to let them guess who it was.
Taking advantage of their momentary surprise, he snapped his fingers and cosmic energy wrapped around his body, wreathing him in spatial light and teleporting him out of the area in a second.
And that was how Cattleya discovered her son was capable of casting Tier 4 teleportation magic with a single gesture.
Oh, and he also happened to have a crush on someone who wasn’t Layla.
