Chapter 340: A Mother’s Perspective (Cattleya POV)
"Parenting is hard."
I repeated those words to my mother for the nth time, right after I watched my son, Arthur, vanish from my sight with a flash of light.
Before the issue of whether he had a crush on someone even crossed my mind, I was more impressed that he had become capable of using Tier 4 Spatial Magic easily.
Right after I spoke, I noticed my mother’s eyes momentarily glance at me, but they quickly returned their focus to the homunculus which she was inscribing magic circles in the eye of.
She did not say anything, but I knew it wasn’t because she was ignoring me, but because she was prioritizing finishing her task before answering me.
And she did exactly just that.
Only after slotting the eyeball into the skull’s eye socket, did she put down her magic pen and finally turn towards me.
"So, what is it this time?"
"You say that like I only say that when I have issues."
"Is that not the truth?"
I felt a bit miffed when I saw the knowing look that she was giving me, but I had no way to refute her.
"...it’s obviously regarding Arthur."
"Sure, it is. You don’t have any other kids, do you?"
Though I knew she was messing with me, the way she spoke still managed to tick me off a little, and from the way she chuckled right after, I could tell she knew this.
Sighing with light exasperation, I leaned back on my seat, picking up one of the Neutronium Spheres on the desk and juggling it as many thoughts and memories flashed through my mind.
I once saw a book talking about how one shouldn’t ’Date their Best Friend’ and how they could go about the situation if they ended up falling for the person.
It was a good read and all, but sadly, it didn’t say anything about what to do if you got pregnant for said Best Friend.
This exact thought had gone through my mind when I discovered that I was pregnant for Hades 17 years ago.
The two of us were definitely best friends, a friendship forged over centuries, and one that completely ignored the hostile tensions between our respective races.
I was someone who normally didn’t care too much about such things, all I cared about was that I had found a friend in Hades, and the reverse was the same.
But my feelings towards him? 100% platonic.
Even after we had a kid together, they were still that way. Arthur once said it looked more like 120% to him.
When I first laid my eyes on the boy, I was overwhelmed in more ways than one. I had a renewed realisation that I was going to be a mother, I was filled with a surge of unexplained joy, along with the thought that ’this kid might turn out just like me’.
Taking aside the Devils’ ’Hands off’ policy used in raising their kids, my mum had allowed me quite a lot of freedom, especially considering my status as a ’Princess of the Devildom.’
She wasn’t very restrictive of me, and in that same vein, I had zero intentions to be restrictive of Arthur.
I simply replicated what was done to me with him, and it was then that the words ’Parenting is Hard’ became a frequent participator in our conversations regarding him.
The hunch I had when he was just a newborn turned out to be a hit, with Arthur growing up to be just as whimsical as I am.
Our thought processes were so frighteningly similar, and we sometimes got mistaken for a pair of siblings, rather than mother and son—though this only happened when we went to ’rural’ parts of the universe where the appearances of the Devildom’s Royal family weren’t known.
And I kinda liked things that way. If Arthur was happy, then there was no problem; his happiness was a priority after all.
I would not deny that as he grew older, his antics sometimes gave me headaches, but I guessed this must have been how my mother felt during my childhood.
"Oh, so now you finally understand me?"
"Maybe, I do."
But in the end, the sight of my son living happily filled me with happiness I could not explain with words.
A feeling that was completely inverted that day I saw him collapse onto the ground after being shot five times with soul poison.
I can’t explain how I felt at that point in time.
The fear that gripped me in both body and soul in that instant; was one I never felt before and I hopefully never have to feel ever again.
The series of events that followed that day weren’t ones that needed to be repeated.
Me closely watching Arthur’s every move, putting a more advanced tracker on him and basically turning into a helicopter parent.
Despite how good I was at hiding what I really thought with my normal whimsical nature, my mum saw through all that.
For the months that followed, I’d have nightmares about Arthur dying; something that made me give up sleep altogether, just so I could prevent my brain from conjuring those ’what ifs’.
But mother saw how I was nearly—if I wasn’t already—traumatized by the event, and how my actions following this were simply little efforts at preventing remotely similar from happening again.
I wanted my son’s happiness, I wanted him to be free. But if that freedom I allowed him was going to put him in such danger; then was that ’freedom’ really worth it?
Thoughts like that began appearing in my mind one after another, a rabbit hole I would have spiralled down head first if not for my mum who pulled me out of it.
"Arthur’s basically already 17. In a year he’d be 18, the age where humans considered their children as Adults.
What I’m saying is, he’s not going to be under your care forever. He’s not going to be within your reach all the time, you would not always be there to protect him either.
Just like I had to eventually let you forge your path in life on your own, you’re going to have to do the same for him in due time.
And with the way Arthur is growing...that due time is nearer than you think."
Perhaps because she knew exactly what I was about to ask, Mum spoke up before my voice could escape my lips.
"What you’re feeling now, those ’what ifs’ regarding his safety going through your head every day. I went through that with you.
You have no idea the mental battles I had with myself when you left this universe for the first time.
’What if she encounters someone stronger?’ ’What if an old enemy randomly pops up and targets her?’ ’What if this happens?’ ’What if that happens?’
I went through all that, so to an extent, I can relate with you.
But just because you put it off now, doesn’t mean it’s gonna go away. The more you keep pushing back the issue, the harder it’ll be for you to let go.
Besides, thanks to your grandpa...he would not be so defenceless if faced with stronger foes."
She added on that last bit with a casual shrug of her shoulders, before picking up the second Homunculus eyeball and beginning to draw some complicated runes behind it with the pen Aunt Jaelyn silently handed to her.
◇ ◇ ◇
Mum’s words remained in my mind, ringing out over and over again as I watched Arthur face off against the group of demigods, and even when I saw him inform his friends of his decision to leave Hell.
When he abruptly pulled me into a hug, the idea to stop him once again reared its ugly head, but I pushed it down to the deepest recesses of my mind.
Watching the spatial gate that he had disappeared beyond closing up, I took a deep breath to calm the feeling of anxiety that sprouted within me upon noticing his tracker had gone offline.
A second later, I sensed a slight ripple in the fabric of space beside me, followed by the appearance of my elder brother who looked at the disappearing portal and asked.
"Feeling unsure about your decision?"
"You ask that now, of all times? Even if I was, there’s nothing that can be done at this time."
Even though I didn’t really get things about space and the like, it did not mean I did not have a ’basic’ understanding, enough to know that even if a Universal Master with Monarch Rank Space Authority came here, they would not be able to do anything to the portal that just vanished.
"Arthur’s Safety is the number 1 priority for me. And since most of my concerns there had been ’alleviated’ by the presence of that forearm guard; the ’Stellar Guard’, it was called; and the other defensive artifacts he has on him, then Priority number 2; his Happiness is the next to deal with.
In this case, letting him go was exactly what was required."
Turning my gaze towards the half-dead sack of flesh hosting a foolish soul on the floor beside me, I continued.
"People who stand in the way of those two Priorities of mine, require to be eliminated,"
Just as I slowly tightened my grip on the mongrel’s neck, letting a tiny bit of my destruction aura seep into his being, Creusery’s hand grabbed my hand and spoke.
"Don’t kill him, Leya."
"You insult me. I can control myself just enough to leave him within an inch of his life."
"He would not be able to answer anything if he was in that state, you know?"
Ignoring Creusery, I looked back at Arthur’s friends after tossing the elf towards him and speaking.
"You guys should wrap up whatever you have here."
I sent a momentary glance at the weak gods who were cowering in the corner, shaking my head lightly before turning back to Creusery and asking him for the coordinates to the location he had uncovered, where the collaborators of the cretin in his hold were.
"It’s strange how we did not notice them—a collaboration between elves and gods from other pantheons—earlier."
"Don’t act ignorant, Creusery. We both know that Dad was preventing us from noticing there for reasons only he and Uncle Conrad know.
Anyway, I’m off to go wipe out a galaxy cluster."
Leaving those words behind, I unfurled my wings and used them to propel myself into the air, and then out of the planet’s atmosphere, before setting course of the coordinates I collected.
With a few acceleration magic spells and the law of alacrity’s energy, I was off to end the rest of the fools who had posed threats to my son’s safety.
