Chapter 204: The Family Table
Eren parked the grey Nissan outside his family’s house in Zekeriyaköy and turned the engine off. He looked at the familiar iron gate and his right leg kept bouncing against the center console.
He used to drive a beaten-up scooter in these exact streets before his life changed into a magical nightmare. The scooter was cheap and it rattled terribly when he pushed it past fifty kilometers an hour. He used to park it right next to the green garbage bins because the neighbor’s stray dog liked to sleep on the leather seat to stay warm. But it could slip between the massive city buses in Istanbul traffic and find parking anywhere. The Nissan was definitely safer for a family but it made him feel trapped in the narrow neighborhood roads. He still missed the cold wind hitting his face on that old bike.
Emily unbuckled her seatbelt. She pushed her summer dress down over her eight-month belly and picked up her half-finished bottle of sour-cherry juice from the cup holder.
"You are bouncing your leg again," she said. She took a sip of the red juice and watched his knee vibrate.
"I am not bouncing it." Eren forced his knee to stay still. "Istanbul traffic just makes my knees weird. We spent two hours on the bridge and I think my clutch foot is permanently damaged."
She leaned over the center console and kissed him on the cheek. She smelled like the sweet sour-cherry juice mixed with her herbal soap.
"Your parents love me silly." Emily patted his chest with her free hand. "You just need to act normal."
I am always normal.
He rubbed his cheek and grabbed the plastic pharmacy bags from the back seat. The air outside smelled like pine needles and distant exhaust fumes. It was a completely regular Earth smell but it still felt strange after months of breathing the thick mana-rich air of Evon.
The front door opened before they even reached the porch steps.
Jane waited in the doorway with a kitchen towel in her hands. She looked at Eren first but her eyes immediately locked onto Emily and the visible curve of her belly.
"Oh my god," Jane whispered.
She dropped the towel on the shoe rack and rushed forward. She didn’t hug Eren. She walked right past him and wrapped her arms around Emily with careful but immediate motherly force.
Emily went completely stiff for exactly one second. Her hunter instincts treated sudden fast movements as threats but she realized who it was and relaxed. She hugged Jane back and smiled.
"You look a little pale," Jane said and kept her hands on Emily’s shoulders. "Come inside quickly. I made soup and put extra mint in it."
Eren dropped the pharmacy bags near the stairs and took his shoes off. He lined his boots up next to the shoe rack and watched them disappear into the house. The house was loud with the sound of a football match on the television from the living room.
"Usual stuff right?" he muttered quietly to himself.
The son survives a magical forest with monsters and the family only cares about the pregnant wife.
He smiled and walked into the living room.
Can crouched next to the sofa and didn’t even look at the television screen. He looked at Eren’s broad shoulders and the tight jacket that barely fit him anymore. Eren had grown massively in the last few months and his father always noticed the physical changes.
"You got bigger again," Can said.
"I am eating well." Eren crossed his arms.
Can nodded and walked past him straight toward the kitchen. Eren followed his father to see what was happening.
The kitchen was already a strategic alliance. Jane was stirring a large pot on the stove while Emily sat at the table. She was chopping vegetables with a speed and precision that made Jane stare at her with wide eyes. A Level 51 hunter using a kitchen knife was basically a blur of steel.
"Slow down dear," Jane warned. She pointed her wooden spoon at the cutting board. "You will cut your fingers."
"I won’t cut them." Emily slid the chopped carrots into a bowl and smiled at her mother-in-law. "I do this every day."
Can walked up to the table and kneeled right next to Emily’s chair. The retired bank manager put his right ear almost completely against Emily’s stomach. He looked exactly like an old man trying to tune a broken radio to catch the news broadcast but he was smiling silly and a bit proud. Can used to listen to broken ATM machines with the same focus before calling the mechanics.
He tapped his index finger lightly against her belly. "Testing, testing. Are you receiving me in there?"
Eren rubbed the back of his neck. "Dad, it is a baby, not a walkie-talkie."
"Doctors say babies can hear voices from the outside." Can didn’t look up and kept his ear pressed against the belly. "I am your grandfather. We are going to watch football together and ignore your father."
Emily laughed and the bright sound filled the kitchen. She looked at Eren with a smug expression.
"He likes your dad better than you already."
"Great. I am losing my rank in my own house."
Eren left them in the kitchen and walked back into the hallway. The house felt much smaller than he remembered. Maybe because he was physically bigger now or maybe because he was used to the wide open spaces of the Evon forest and the massive coastal farm he just bought.
He heard a sound from the wooden stairs.
A slow dragging shuffle followed by a heavy wheeze.
Eren stepped toward the staircase and looked up. Sofie held the wooden handrail with both hands and her knuckles were completely white. She had only climbed down four steps but she was taking short and sharp breaths that rattled deep in her chest.
The wooden stairs in this house had a creaky third step from the bottom. Eren used to try skipping it when he sneaked in late during his high school years. His father had promised to fix that loose board for ten years but never actually bought the nails for it. Now that creaky step sounded incredibly loud while his grandmother tried to catch her breath just above it.
She looked pale. The skin around her eyes was sunken and gray. The cancer was advancing fast and it showed on her face today. Her breathing sounded like crumpled paper.
Eren’s throat went tight and he swallowed hard.
"Let me help you." He took two steps up and offered his right arm.
Sofie glared at him and slapped his hand away weakly. "I can walk on my own legs boy." She took another shaky breath and forced herself down the next step. "I was climbing mountains before your father was even a thought."
"I know." Eren kept his hands close just in case she slipped.
I need to get her to the farm soon.
If she crosses the portal and gets registered in the system she can level up. One or two levels could pause this sickness completely.
Sofie reached the bottom and leaned heavily on her wooden cane. She looked at Eren’s face and then at his pointed ears poking through his dark hair. She didn’t look surprised or scared. She just gave him a knowing nod.
"You look exactly like him," she muttered. "Your grandfather. When he came back he had that same wild look in his eyes."
Eren didn’t say anything to that. He knew the stories about his grandfather returning from Evon broken and half-mad decades ago. He just gently supported her elbow and walked her toward the dining room.
The dinner was a massive spread. Jane had cooked enough food for ten people and kept piling more onto Emily’s plate every time she finished something.
Emily was eating everything with the ruthless efficiency of a pregnant half-elf whose caloric needs were currently terrifying. She finished her second bowl of mint soup and wiped her mouth with a napkin. Then she reached for the rice and chicken. The ceramic plates clinked constantly under her fork.
"She eats well," Sofie observed from the head of the table. The old woman had barely touched her own soup.
"She needs it." Eren took a sip of his water.
He looked around the table at his family. Can was cutting his meat, Jane was pouring more juice for Emily and Sofie was watching the room with tired eyes.
This was the moment.
"I bought a farm," Eren said loudly.
The clatter of silverware stopped immediately.
Can put his knife down and looked at Eren. "A farm."
"Down south near the Aegean coast." Eren leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. "It is a huge property. Twenty-five acres with a big farmhouse and fresh air and a lot of space. We have been fixing it up for the last few weeks."
He had spent over a quarter of a million dollars on that land. The renovations were draining his bank account faster than he expected but Kalina was handling the legal paperwork and the import business was bringing in some cash. He didn’t want to explain offshore shell companies and illegal elf refugees to his retired parents right now.
Jane wiped her hands on her apron and frowned. "Why did you buy a farm Eren? Your job in Istanbul and our house will be empty-"
"I don’t work there anymore Mom." He kept his voice steady. "The farm is my new home. Emily and I are moving there permanently. And I want all of you to pack your things and come live with us."
The dining room went completely silent. Emily stopped chewing her rice and watched the family with her green eyes darting between their faces.
Can cleared his throat. "Eren, we have a life here. Our house, the neighborhood, the doctors for your grandmother..."
"The doctors aren’t helping her." Eren looked directly at Sofie.
The old woman stared back at him without blinking.
"The air in the city is poison for her lungs. The farm has clean sea air. We grow our own organic food and there are alternative treatments available there."
He couldn’t mention the Evon system or the level-ups yet. Not until they were ready to see the portal.
"It is safe there," Emily added softly. She reached under the table and put her hand on Eren’s thigh. She squeezed his leg once. "The kitchen there is too big for me. I really need someone to teach me how to make your stuffed grape leaves."
Jane looked at Emily’s belly and her resolve visibly melted. The grandmother instinct was a powerful weapon.
Can rubbed his chin. "It is a big decision. We need to think about selling this house and packing everything."
"You don’t need to sell anything." Eren drank the rest of his water. "Just pack your clothes and important things. We have everything else you need at the farm already."
Sofie picked up her fork and tapped it against her ceramic plate. The sharp sound pulled everyone’s attention to the head of the table.
She looked at Eren with eyes that suddenly looked very sharp.
"I will go," Sofie said. Her voice was raspy but confident.
"Mom," Can started.
"Shut up Can." Sofie didn’t look at her son. Her eyes stayed locked on Eren. "I am sick of looking at concrete walls and breathing exhaust fumes. If the boy says the farm is better then I am going."
Eren let out a long breath. "Thank you Grandma."
"But," Sofie raised one crooked finger in the air. "I have one condition."
"Anything."
"I am bringing my garden with me." Sofie pointed her finger toward the back window where her dozens of potted plants and flowers sat in the dark. "Every single pot. The rose bushes and the lemon tree. You will dig them up and put them in a truck."
Eren stared at her. "Grandma, those rose bushes have roots deeper than the house."
Those rose bushes had been in the front yard since Eren was seven years old. He used to lose his plastic footballs in them and Sofie would chase him with a broom for snapping the branches. Trying to dig them up would require heavy machinery.
"And the dirt," Sofie continued without looking at him. "The dirt here is good. If you leave my roses I am walking back to Istanbul."
Emily hid a smile behind her hand and patted his leg again.
Eren sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Deal. I will rent a truck for the dirt tomorrow."
The rest of the dinner passed with Jane asking a hundred rapid-fire questions about the farmhouse kitchens and Can talking about renting a moving truck. Eren answered them all patiently while Emily ate her third serving of rice.
..
The house finally went quiet later that night.
Emily was asleep in Eren’s old childhood bed. The bed frame was a cheap metal thing his parents bought when he started high school and it creaked every time someone breathed too hard. Emily didn’t care. She was sprawled across the mattress with one leg thrown over the blanket and her breathing was slow and even.
Eren couldn’t sleep. The dinner conversation had gone better than he expected but his brain was still running at full speed. He needed to get them to the farm, open the portal, bring them through the safe zone and register them in the system. Especially Sofie.
The clock of her failing health is ticking too loud.
He quietly opened the bedroom door and stepped out onto the small balcony.
The late autumn air was freezing. It bit into his bare arms but his high Endurance stat shrugged the cold off easily. He used to wear two sweaters just to stand here for five minutes during high school. Now he didn’t even feel a shiver. He leaned against the metal railing and looked out over the quiet Zekeriyaköy street. Yellow streetlights buzzed softly in the dark and a stray dog trotted past a parked car below.
It was so calm here. No dragons burning the sky and no trolls charging out of the treeline. Just concrete and quiet.
"Just my luck," he whispered under his breath.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Dungeon Heart Fragment.
The small metallic marble was completely full. It glowed with a faint steady blue light in his palm and held a thousand points of pure mana. He needed to use it soon to test the Clone skill or keep it as his emergency return ticket.
He rolled the smooth surface between his thumb and index finger. The cold metal felt heavier than usual.
Then the marble moved.
Eren froze.
It didn’t just glow. The solid metallic sphere in his hand contracted inward for a fraction of a millimeter and then expanded.
Thump.
It wasn’t a pulse of light or a magical vibration. It was a physical muscular beat against the skin of his palm. Like he was holding a tiny living heart torn out of a chest.
What the hell was that?
He stared at the fragment in the dark. The marble was perfectly still again. Smooth, cold and glowing faintly blue.
He waited for a full minute but it didn’t beat a second time.
Eren slowly closed his fingers around the fragment and slipped it back into his pocket. He looked up at the cloudy Istanbul night sky and the cold air suddenly felt a lot less safe than it had a minute ago.
