~ Chapter 172: Returning Home ~
[Illsyore’s point of view]
We didn’t stay for too long on the Demon Continent, but I had more than enough time to teach Graymore the method that would greatly help Akardia to safely deliver both of her babies. While I was doing this, I also got to learn a few tips and tricks about the proper way of using my own Dungeon Territory.
The old goat acted as though what he was teaching me wasn’t all that important and that it was something any Dungeon from the Dungeon Continent was capable of doing, more so if they held the equivalent rank of nobles over here. He also taught me a few things about Dungeons in general and how he knew they acted. He was mostly referring to the ones that ended up living on another continent, far from their possible parents, and which through the constant pestering of the species outside their Dungeon Territory, they slowly fell into a state of madness. Almost all of them were obnoxious and annoying in various ways, and it was to no surprise that Graymore himself had the unpleasant experience of meeting several of them.
On the other hand, I learned that those on the Dungeon Continent lived in a similar way to how the other species did. They had their own little nation with governing laws and stuff like that. There were holidays and festivals as well as a King, who was rumored to be the last existing Primordial.
While I was getting to learn all of this stuff from Graymore, Nanya was spending her time together with her mother, learning all sort of tricks for raising the little treasures we had back at home. She was also getting to see a new side of her parents now that she understood why they acted as they did all those many years ago. It probably wasn’t easy for them trying to figure out all of that stuff. They didn’t have the internet or any other means of getting useful information that could help them get through the more difficult times.
This experience gave her and idea, of which I wholeheartedly approved. She was thinking about writing a type of book in the form of a guide, which would be free to access by everyone who sought information of that kind. For example, hints and tips that a pregnant woman should be aware off as well as a husband’s guide on how to behave around his pregnant wife. I also suggested to have a guide for the young girls and boys who just reached puberty. It probably wasn’t all that obvious, but teen pregnancy was a bit too common, in my own opinion.
This reminded me of the fact that we still hadn’t opened a proper library yet, so adding a section of ‘dummy’s guide’ would be perfect. We could add there all sort of hints and tips for all sort of matters, that ranged from common stuff to the more unexpected ones, like survival in the middle of a dungeon exploration.
Leaving aside these interactions with her parents, Nanya and I also got to spend a few hours walking around the city and looking at various stalls. We bought a few souvenirs and then at the end of the day watched the sunset from atop the Demonarkiar Palace.
I also got to meet Sunsun, Nanya’s little sister. She was a very pretty little girl, energetic and very shy. The reason why she kept looking away from me was apparently because she liked the color of my hair and eyes. It was something rather unique for her, so I made her a tiny jade statue that resembled Nanya in a heroic pose. It was to remember her by. For safe measure, I also enchanted it to be very sturdy because the demons on this continent tended to be a bit... unpredictable when it came to their own strength.
Nanya’s family was unexpectantly easy to get along with, except for two of her siblings, who, for some reason, kept their distance from me. Later on, I got to learn that they made a bunch of bets against Nanya and now they were heavily in debt. Staying within their mother’s palace was their only way of staying safe while slowly paying back their debt. As long as Akardia was the supreme ruler of the Demonarkiar Empire, there was no way those two would end up dead, but nothing would spare them from a good beating and probably a robbery or two.
As for why they stayed away from me, they feared that I would demand retribution from them because of how they acted with Nanya when she was little. I didn’t think they had to worry about me in that regard, but my wife’s pranks had evolved quite a bit, maybe that was what they needed to watch out for?
Either way, when the time came for the two of us to depart, they decided to follow us all the way to the barrier to see it with their own eyes. Since we couldn’t have Akardia fly with us all the way over there in her current state, we decided to take Nanya’s yacht instead... and this led to us traveling together for about two days.
Well, I wasn’t mad about it, Nanya got to spend some more quality time with her parents, while I heard Graymore’s list of 1001 reasons of why I wasn’t suited for his daughter. To be more precise, that was a list of a grumpy father nagging at his son in law for every little thing he could find. If the waves were too high, it was my fault. If the boat shook even a little, it was my fault. If he lost at cards, it was my fault! If I kicked him off the boat, it was my fault too! OK, that last one may have been my fault for ‘accidentally’ installing an ejection seat there... that reacted to his unique body weight and Magic Energy wavelength.... ahem, yeah... accidentally.
“It really isn’t here...” Graymore was the first to react when we reached the site of the so-called barrier.
“Like I told you, there’s nothing to worry about.” I said and then flew past the point marked on the map.
“Nothing stopped you...” Akardia remarked as she looked up at me. Well, from that distance, I couldn’t hear her, but that was what I guessed she probably said.
After flying back to the yacht, I landed on the deck next to them and then asked “Well, what do you think?”
“With the barrier gone, this means that there won’t be anything stopping the Merions from rushing to the other continents...” said Graymore.
“Speaking of which, how did that barrier keep them in when it was designed to ignore any creature past a certain level?” I asked out of curiosity.
“When the barrier was here, these waters were swarming with powerful monsters. The Merions, no matter how brave or strong they were, they would have eventually met their doom or end up forced to return up meeting that wall of sea monsters.” he replied.
“I see... but, can Merions swim? Last I checked, they were like a stone brick... sank all the way to the bottom.” I scratched my head as I tried to picture an army of those pests trying to swim across this entire mass of water but failing miserably like a bunch of lemmings that fell off a cliff.
“Erm, that’s a good question. To be fair, I didn’t actually try to test it out.”
“Also, aren’t there Merions on the Demon Continent as well?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“They are of a different breed. They can’t possibly evolve to a golden one. I tried.” he nodded.
“If you say so.... I’m not really convinced that those little poo-eating pests are actually that dangerous.” I told him as I shook my head when my imagination simply failed to process the very concept of such a powerful Merion.
Even if by some obscure chance it could evolve into an army of powerful monsters like that, I could probably take care of them with ease. It would probably take longer to build the ditch in which I would have to throw them in later.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye, at least for now. With the barrier gone, you’ll be able to safely visit us any time you’ll want.” Nanya said as she turned around to look at her parents.
“Yes, but are you sure you want to leave this beautiful vessel with us?” Akardia asked as she looked at the yacht.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Consider it a gift!” I laughed.
“We’ll definitely come to visit.” Akardia told us as she looked at us with a calm and gentle expression on her face.
“If you get tired of this numbskull, you can always take your kids and come to daddy, I’ll make sure to keep your room clean, and I’ll even make a new one for Kormian and Natrasku! On your next visit, you definitely have to bring them along so I can see them!” Graymore said as he tossed me a glare filled with daggers and then a flowery one at Nanya.
“Yes, father, I will try to keep that in mind, and don’t worry about it. I’ll definitely not get bored of Illsy, he’s certainly weird in his own way, but he is, in the end, the man I fell in love with and chose to live my life beside...” she said with a warm smile on her lips.
“Make sure to visit us as often as you can, and once I’m sure the waters are safe, we can sign the documents for opening a trading route as well.” Akardia said as she hugged Nanya one last time.
“Take care, you foolish little girl!” Graymore hugged her as well.
“I will, take care, mother... father.” Nanya said with tears in her eyes as she spread her wings and then flew off.
“Well, this is it! Take care of the ship and don’t scratch it!” I laughed and then flew off.
“Just drop dead already, you blasted fool!” shouted Graymore.
“Make me, you balding brute!” I retorted.
“Dungeons don’t bald, you fool!” he shouted.
And we kept at it until we were far enough for them not to hear us anymore.
As we sored through the sky, I moved closer to Nanya and asked her “Are you alright?”
“Hm?” she looked at me and then showed me a smile “I’m fine, Illsy... It’s just that...” she stopped and looked down at the water flowing below us.
“Just what?” I asked her.
“Do you think I was being rash with flying over to my parents without properly checking the barrier?” she asked me, a tinge of worry in the tone of her voice.
It was true that if by chance there was a barrier there, getting back inside would have been a pain, but just as I learned from Zoreya, there was no such thing as an impregnable barrier.
“Honestly, a little, but everything turned out alright in the end, and you also got to learn a few things about yourself and your parents.”
“Like being born sick and not knowing about it until now?” she showed me a wry smile.
“Yeah, like that.” I nodded.
“And to think that all this time I thought they did all of those things because they hated my weakness...”
“When in fact they were just a pair of clumsy parents who didn’t know how to act or what to do in that case?”
Nanya nodded and then let out a sigh “I always thought that the ribbon mother gave me was meant to seal my power so that I would be able to mingle better among the locals on the three continents, however, I always found it odd how difficult it was for me to reach higher levels of power. The little strength I had back at Fellyore was achieved through decades of hard work. Maybe I was lucky that I didn’t try to remove the seal sometime earlier in my life. If I did, I would probably never had had the chance to meet you, Illsy.” she showed me a gentle smile.
“I try not to think about that... The risk of losing you or any other of my wives for that matter is something that would be terrible for me. I can’t even imagine my life now without the five of you by my side, and maybe I’m being a bit selfish now, wanting to have five beautiful women like you as my wives, but... fate led us to this point, and right now, I really don’t want to lose all of this. That’s why, I’m simply glad and happy that fate, one way or another brought us together when I had the strength to protect and heal you all. Or rather... when it was the most opportune time for me to fall in love with you.” I smiled and looked into Nanya’s eyes.
“You would have healed us either way, but falling in love was another matter, wasn’t it, Illsy?” she asked with a gentle smile on her lips.
“Yes... I never expected nor hoped to fall in love with you five, but... well, shit happens.” I shrugged.
“Hehe! I’m just glad I got to fall in love with you rather than someone else.” she told me.
“Well, there was the chance of you falling in love with Tuberculus, wasn’t it?” I winked at her.
“Him? No way! While you are a cute pervert, he is too much of a creepy pervert. Do you think I never noticed when tried to peek at me in the bath during our adventuring days?” she asked with a wry smile.
“Don’t I do that from time to time?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“There’s a difference, Illsy, between wanting to lure out the man you love and just having a relaxing bath after wiping the grime off your body.” she winked back at me.
“Oh, that explain a lot actually... No wonder it was so easy to do that...” I nodded.
“This doesn’t mean that I’m always in the mood for something like this, so naturally, when I just want to relax, I’m either letting you join for an actual bath or chase you out.” she poked her tongue out at me.
“It’s kind of hard to abstain considering how tempting your body is.” I showed her a perverted smile and then both of us started to laugh.
Once we got tired of flying on our own, I pulled out my fighter plane from my Inner Mind and flew back home at a hypersonic speed. The ones who were most happy to see us come back were the children, especially the little half-demon boy who called out ‘mama’ as soon as he saw her.
This moment alone was enough to bring Nanya to tears from all the joy and happiness she felt.