章 224: Chapter 16
As fulfilling as his job was, Pero knew when to take breaks from his usual routine and use these opportunities to hang out with his new family. With the Eurazania project set in motion and left in the care of some of his most trusted kobolds, he went back home.
Sitting in a garden chair with a beer can in his hand, he watched the World Enders spar with all their might, training as they always did in case they were called upon. Currently, it was Behemoth against Leviathan, with both dragons clashing with each other with a devastating force that would've leveled mountains if outside the tomb.
Beside him to the right was his to-be brother-in-law Soei, whom Pero often joked was the only one crazy enough to put up with his sister's shit, especially her emotional outbursts whenever she built up too much stress from working too much. The kijin was also sipping his beer in silence, occasionally grabbing chips from the provided snack bowl. To his left was his niece, Aura, who shared his laid-back attitude; thus, they hung out from time to time. She lays in the chair cross-legged, with a Coke bottle in her hand, chilled in Cocytus' floor for optimal drinking temperature.
Of course, Pero was fond of Mare as well and had taken the role of a mentor when it came to romantic matters. However, the boy preferred to spend his free time either playing with Milim or in solitude reading books. Not that he blamed the elf. If anything, he encouraged Mare to keep looking for more things to spend time with Milim.
"Man, they haven't learned any new tricks. It's the same fight as a week ago," Aura grumbled as she took a sip of coke through the straw.
As a cool uncle, Pero offered her beer despite knowing the risks of his sister finding out, but Aura turned down the offer, stating that she didn't want to compromise her current trust level and get back to square one with Buku.
"They don't go out too much, so there is no place for them to learn new tricks," Pero replied.
"I don't get it, why? After the evolution, we're basically on the same level as them, and rings work just fine." Aura commented.
"You can bring it up with Momonga. I have my plate full as is without babysitting any of them, and it's not like I can let them fight in front of a general audience, nor do we have any convenient trainers to teach them fighting styles suitable for dragons," Pero suggested.
"Naah, I'll pass. I can't waste my chance on such a proposal when I'm about to suggest creating curated hunting grounds all over Tempest with Milim." Aura shook her head and grabbed a few fries from a bowl in her lap, tossing them in her mouth with a loud crunch.
"If things go south, you can ask your soon-to-be stepfather to nudge Buku, and she, in turn, will convince Momonga," Pero chuckled, nudging Souei.
The kijin turned his head, staring at the avian in mute confusion.
"What? You'll have to marry her crazy ass one day. Might as well treat you like family and start abusing the familial connection," Pero added, giving him a mock toast with the can as he asked a maid for another.
"Uncle, Souei isn't much older than me even by the new standards. It just sounds weird when you say it like this," Aura shook her head.
"Hey, I'm just saying. Once Momonga loses the battle and marries his girls, Buku will go full force on the guy when the trio settles down," Pero continued adding fuel to the fire, barely resisting calling Buku Souei's sugar mommy.
"Right… like you don't need to worry about that either. What is it now, thirteen consorts to one you? All mom needs to do is rile up a few of them and you're screwed," Aura giggled as she pointed out her uncle's situation, which was arguably even worse than the two other Lords combined.
"Erm… I am sure I can handle it. Anyhow, you said something about hunting grounds. Do you need some of my people dealing with the financial side?" Pero hastily switched the topic.
"Sure. Milim and I didn't think about money just yet, but some additional pocket change won't hurt, and if we can make money off of it in the future that's all the better." The elven girl took another sip from her bottle and turned her attention back to the battle that was still raging on behind three layers of shields.
"Then I'll notify-" Pero stopped mid-sentence as the news suddenly came in. Momonga had died and Buku was in charge of both Nazarick and Tempest.
"Uncle… that can't be true?" Aura let out a whimper, her cheerful, easygoing demeanor disappearing in a flash as even the World Enders paused their fight.
"I'll go report to Demiurge and be on standby," Souei reported, disappearing without any hesitation. With such news, the intelligence network was bound to be on high alert.
"He is immortal. Momonga will be back," Pero uttered in disbelief as he reached out and patted Aura's head in a comforting gesture.
What exactly happened to his friend was impossible to tell at the moment, but he knew that he would find out soon enough.
The next few hours went by in a frenzy. First was the meeting where his sister issued a nationwide gag order and took charge of Hegemony, as she was supposed to in Momonga's absence. Even the normal citizens were to be fed a fake story in case any of them felt something unusual and reported it to the government officials, as they often did thanks to Tempest's tumultuous changes. He found out that his friend was tampering with time and something had gone terribly wrong. Even Rubedo was gone, so it came as no surprise that Buku wanted to make sure no information spread, as their enemies could try to use the opportunity to invade. They all knew the undead overlord played the stick quite heavily compared to the carrot, and now the biggest stick Nazarick had was gone.
Once the meeting was over he knew that his job was to ensure Mariabell hadn't the faintest suspicion of what had happened. This was relatively easy to achieve as Mariabell, in her endless arrogance, would never suspect a clear bait if she benefited from it. He ordered Koby to slip up and reveal that printing presses in Tempest couldn't keep up with card demand, which would let Mariabell use her part of the company and push in this enterprise with her agents, which she foolishly thought was her opening into the southern lands. To be fair, they were scheduled to be incapable of holding up the current production lines within a few weeks since he hadn't fully anticipated just how much the lycanthropes wanted merchandise, if anything he was using her to inject resources to keep the whole situation afloat.
As hours went by, he processed and came to terms with what had happened, the new reality settled in. Momonga was gone for now and he, together with the rest of the guild members, particularly he and Buku, would have to deal with that and be the pillars of support for the rest of their nation.
With that in mind, he decided to visit his daughter and help her cope with her lover's disappearance however he could.
As he arrived in Momonga's wing in Nazarick's castle area, his ears were assaulted with gargled, tormented screams. Upon entering the private area of his friend and his consorts, Pero found them tormenting Luminous. She was stark naked, hanging in the air by her collar from under which a steady stream of blood was dripping, likely having spikes inserted in it for additional pain and discomfort.
Despite being a spiritual being, Luminous possessed a physical body that could be damaged if her defenses were turned off. Unfortunately for her, she, a thrall, was at the complete mercy of Nazarick, who had fully cooperated with Shalltear. Her hands were twisted behind her back and attached to a magisteel rod peeking out from her lower back, one enchanted with numerous poisons and toxins gathered from across the world. The fact that the vampire could nearly instantly regenerate only worked against her, as there were a plethora of bloodied torture tools scattered around the floor, some of them being repurposed and modified sex toys Pero refused to imagine how they were used.
The look of desperation Luminous gave him told more than a thousand words, but he was the last person she could expect mercy from. It was his people and one of his lovers who paid the price for the vampire's actions. In a sense, it filled him with satisfaction to see the three women doing their best to break the vampire both physically and mentally.
"Hey ladies. Sweety. I just came to check on you," He greeted the trio.
Shalltear dropped the barbed scalpel and rushed over as the other two stopped their work on Luminous, with Albedo forcefully pushing the bloodied gag in the vampire's mouth to shut her up. His daughter practically jumped in his embrace.
{ Daddy, he's gone and I don't even know when he'll return! } His daughter used Thought Communication so Luminous couldn't overhear it.
{ You heard Ramiris, it's probably just a few days, and then Momonga will be back. } Pero reassured her as he gently stroked her back while Shalltear buried her face in his chest feathers.
{ I know. But it's… I'm scared, Daddy. What if he doesn't return? I have this very bad feeling that something terrible has happened. }
{ It's normal to worry. He will return very soon. I'm sure of it. } Pero did his best to soothe her worries, patting her head.
The other two women watched their father and daughter moment with barely hidden envy, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. They didn't have any relatives who could help them cope and he sure as hell wasn't about to embrace them like he did with Shalltear out of respect for his friend. Even if his intentions were pure they wouldn't come off like that.
{ I guess you're right Daddy. } Shalltear sighed and brushed her face, drying her tears in his feathers and letting go of him.
"Daddy, do you want to join us?" Shalltear offered.
"No thanks. You girls have your… evening. Just remember that Momonga ordered to keep her alive so don't go too far, okay? I'm sure he has his plans for her once he returns." Pero shot one last glance at Luminous and left the trio to their grim stress relief.
<X>
The next four days were a slog. Every other minute was spent hearing his sister venting, Shalltear asking for reassurance, or someone bothering him with questions about Momonga's death. He hated hiding the news from his concubines, using everything he knew to distract or manipulate the conversations away, but orders were orders and he knew they wouldn't be able to handle the undead's disappearance well.
To his immense relief, Momonga did return at the end of the fourth day and everything went back to normal. Pero had little idea of what to make of his friend's death as the only thing the Overlord disclosed was that tampering with time is a bad idea and that nobody else was permitted to mess with it.
In either case, he wasn't that involved with the deep-end science department and couldn't care less if, instead of Chronoa getting contained, she would be outright exterminated from existence. He had his line of work to worry about and he did just that.
The first order of business was to mess with Mariabell's attempt to get a power base in the southern territories, which wasn't that difficult of a task. The girl utilized her unique skill, Greed, to control and manipulate her subordinates, but unbeknown to her, the same skill was also owned by one of Demiurge's evil lords, each of whom represented one of the seven deadly sins. With full access to this skill, Demiurge had worked out very subtle countermeasures that were undetectable by the skill's users that not only usurped the skill's control but also planted false ideas in the minds of the skill's users, which the crafty demon did when time permitted for him to do so. As a result, Pero could give an order he wanted to be executed, and Demiurge would do the rest.
Mariabell would believe she made decent progress, but in reality, her subordinates would slowly become loyal to Pero and Shalltear, with her funds only shoring up Tempest's economic power. There was a twisted irony in the whole ordeal as Mariabell wasn't only talented but was very competent, yet her own skill clouded her rationality and made her too greedy for her own good.
He formulated his plan without a hurry, which he intended to send to Demiurge in the morning while lazing on the sofa with a few of his concubines doing their work nearby, occasionally asking each other or him for assistance. To gaze upon their lovely forms was a distraction for sure, but since his progress was decent there was no need to head to the office and work there, he was more than content to read his papers here.
As the day neared the end and he was about to be done, Shalltear decided to pay him a surprise visit. He had half expected his daughter along with her peers to pounce on Momonga at the first opportunity, but it seemed to not be the case.
"Hey, sweety, did you need anything?" He straightened up as his girls dispersed, giving him and his daughter privacy.
"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you knew," Shalltear replied cryptically as she approached him.
Pero tilted his head in confusion but then it hit him, he could feel the subtle hint of void within his daughter.
"Shalltear, what did you do?" His tone grew stern, that of a parent who had caught his child making a terrible life choice.
"I proved my worth to my beloved. We all did," Shalltear smiled, baring her fangs.
"What the hell does that mean? What did Momonga make you do!?" Noticing the change in his most prized creation, Pero raised his voice as his anger started to boil over and he was ready to go kick the undead's skull in, Rubedo be damned.
"Daddy, you're getting it all wrong. Momonga didn't make me do it. In fact, he tried to talk us out of it, but I needed to prove that I would be by his side no matter what. Together with Albedo and Shion, I went where he had been," Shalltear explained, her smile fading. "Daddy, don't do anything stupid. I did it myself."
"But… ok, so…" He was unsure what to even ask. His daughter had changed and he wasn't sure if it was for the better or for the worse. In the end, it didn't matter if she had changed, she was still his little girl and always would be. Pero sighed and just pulled her in for a hug. "Just be careful with those things, okay?"
"I will, Daddy," Shalltear replied. "You're not angry anymore?"
"I… I am not sure. If I knew I wouldn't have let you, but it is too late."
In the end, all he could do was to accept that his daughter had chosen a path for herself and accept her choice and trust that Momonga would keep her safe. Every parent had to let their children leave the nest eventually, it just had come to him with a greater shock than he'd anticipated. He'll need to talk with Momonga later just in case to get the details.
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by aidan_lo, Stac, KieraKieraARTS, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, fvvck, Sluethen, clagan, Omnax, CakeEight, Working_Stiff, and Alassandro.
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