Back at the Silvaria family estate, a small little girl was currently kneeling down in front of a large bear-like man.The little girl was none other than Angelia and the bear-like man was her daddy, Kaiser Silvaria.
"I-I"m sorry..."
"What are you sorry for, Angelia?"
"Uhm...I...I skipped school..."
"And?"
"and...I went to play instead of studying..."
"And?"
"I also ran away from big brother Matty...I"m sorry..."
"Oka—" Kaiser thought that was the last of her crimes, but next to him, his wife Anastasia immediately opened her mouth and cut him off, "And?"
"What? There"s more?" Kaiser asked in shock.
Angelia began to fidget a little, clearly unwilling to say anymore.
"Angelia, sweetie, what else did you do wrong?" Anastasia asked with a smile that wasn"t a smile.
"M-Mommy..."
"Good girls admit their wrong-doings. I raised a good girl, right?"
"Y-yes Mommy..."
Anastasia took a deep breath and rapidly said her last crime, "Iwentoutofthevalley, I"m sorry!!!"
"..."
"..."
"Sweetie, d-did you just say...you went out of the valley?" Kaiser asked as his benevolent father face began to slowly crumble.
"Y-yes..."
With her word of affirmation, the temperature in the room suddenly dropped.
"Young...lady... You. did. what?"
"I...I..."
"Honey, get me the stick..."
Anastasia was only going to make Angelia admit all her wrongs, but she didn"t think her husband would actually take such severe disciplinary actions. She was at a loss at what to do, but Gabriel immediately objected to his father"s decision.
"Father, isn"t that unneeded? She"s still—"
"Silence!"
"But Father! It was just a mistake on her part! She wouldn"t do it again! Right, Angel?"
"Y-yes..."
"See! She said she won"t do it again!"
"Yes, she did say that..."
"So you don"t have to—"
"But those are only her words..."
"Uh..."
"Without consequences, Angel will only do it again."
"..."
"Honey, bring me the stick."
"D-Dear...isn"t this a little too severe? She didn"t mean to, and it wasn"t even that far off! She was only playing in the fore—"
"AND WHAT IF A MONSTER HAD COME?!"
"..."
His roar immediately silenced everyone in the room who was about to open their mouths, this included Grandmother and Grandfather Silvaria.
"What if we lost her today? Don"t tell me you"re prepared to lose another one of our children?! We still don"t know what happened to Cecil, but...if Angelia went missing now...then there"s only one outcome to that, RIGHT?!"
"D-Dear..."
"Anastasia, don"t make me repeat myself!"
Anastasia could only look down in obvious regret. If only she hadn"t forced her daughter to say that final bit, then it would have ended at a light spanking, and not this.
"Angel, you have to understand. Mistakes have consequences to them, and severe mistakes are accompanied by severe consequences. You recklessly went out of the valley today, what would have happened if you had encountered a monster? Do you know how sad me, your mother, your brothers, your family, would be if we lost you?"
"I-I"m sorry..."
"That"s just not going to cut it Angel! We"re still uncertain about the fate of your brother, but let me be blunt with you...with all of you..."
Kaiser turned to look at the rest of his family. His wife, his 3 sons, his parents, and his youngest daughter, Fatima wasn"t present because she was out of the valley.
"From the latest news that I got from Fatima who"s been staying in the Regulus Kingdom...she still hasn"t found a single trace of Cecil anywhere...there"s also no other rumors about humans who can"t speak their language, and no sightings of a boy who looks like Cecil, so this could mean one thing... Cecil...may have pa.s.sed on..."
"!"
"..."
"This is a cold hard fact...he"s been missing for over 2 years now! Fatima can"t even find him even when she was able to incorporate the help of the Regulus Kingdom"s prince! Of course, he could still be alive and somewhere out there, but think for a moment...this world is DANGEROUS!"
"H-Honey...please...stop..." Anastasia was already sobbing, she too had already heard about the grim news her eldest daughter had brought for them. Even she couldn"t help but think that this was the only conclusion left. It"s been 2 years and even now they haven"t been able to find Cecil.
"N-No way...But...but Fatima, she said she"s still looking! She"s still looking father! There"s...there"s just no way—" Gabriel yelled as he looked at both of his parents. He couldn"t believe this, no, he didn"t want to believe this.
"Gabe..." Luca came up to his twin and gripped his shoulder.
"Brother Cel? Dead?" Angelia"s face immediately blanked when she heard this. As the person closest to Cecil"s age, she was closer to him than the rest of the siblings.
"I...I don"t believe that, he"s definitely still alive...my coolest big brother is not dead..." Angelia covered her ears and tried to stifle her tears, but they came cascading down.
"That"s only one of the conclusions that we can reach...I"m not saying we"re giving up on him, even Fatima is still trying to search for him, but Angie...how do you feel right now? It hurts right? Then think about what would happen if Cecil was still alive and he came back, but suddenly found out that his sister was killed because of her own reckless actions..."
"..."
Seeing the silently sobbing little girl, Kaiser heaved a heavy sigh.
"...let"s forget about the punishment...I"m no longer in the mood." Kaiser said as he got up and left the room.
Anastasia went over to pick up her daughter who was pale faced and tear-stricken. Her daddy"s words had hit home and she had nothing to say for herself. She was still only a child so she couldn"t understand why her father was being so severe to her earlier, to the point where he would even punish her with the stick, but she now understood why.
Just thinking about how horrible she felt when her father had scared her with news that her beloved big brother might have died...she felt like her world was collapsing.
She loved her family dearly and as a child she had a simple mind, as long as everyone was around, everything was alright. The only problem was that her brother had been missing for so long.
During the past 2 years, her family only told her that her brother was off training as usual, but she would overhear some things in the city and sometimes at home. Cecil wasn"t off training, he was missing.
"I-I won"t do anything bad anymore, I won"t, I promise! I"ll go to school and be good girl! So please, please bring big brother Cel back Mommy..."
"Don"t worry darling, daddy was just trying to scare you so you wouldn"t do that again, Cel is just off training..."
"B-but...I-I heard some of the aunties at school say that Cel was missing!"
"That"s because they don"t know anything! They just aren"t used to our family"s traditions so they think he"s missing when actually, he"s just out there training!"
"...R-really? He"s not dead? He"s not missing?"
"Yes sweetie, mommy wouldn"t lie to you," Anastasia hugged her daughter tightly and continued, "Now, remember your promise, you won"t do anything bad anymore, right? You"ll go to school and behave, right?"
"Yes mommy..."
"Good girl, now don"t worry, I won"t tell daddy or anyone else about your two little pets!"
"Okay..."
"Now, go to bed. Tomorrow, mommy will teach you how to protect yourself okay? Remember to come to the dojo after school!"
"Okay, mommy!"
"Good girl, even though you promised me that you wouldn"t go out of the valley, but I know you won"t keep that..."
"Huh?! N-no, I will!"
"Don"t worry, Mommy isn"t mad, mommy will teach you how to protect yourself so even if you do go out of the valley, you won"t be in danger! Besides, you have 2 big helpers to look after you, right?"
"..."
"I won"t tell Daddy, but make sure you don"t get caught!"
"Okay, Mommy... but...is...is it really okay?"
Anastasia sighed, but put on a reluctant smile, "I know that the world"s changed and it"s become much more dangerous. You"re dad wants to build a place that will shelter you all from that danger, but in Mommy"s opinion, all of you should face these dangers head on! Nothing good will come from being a sheltered flower!"
"..."
"So, before you learn how to protect yourself, you have to promise Mommy that you won"t go out of the valley until you do, okay?"
"Okay!"
"Good girl, now hurry on to bed, oh! Remember to take a bath first!"
"Yes, mommy!"
Anastasia exited the room a moment later. She went towards her bedroom and saw her husband waiting for her inside the room.
"...Did you tell her?"
"Yes."
"Good... even though this will make me look like the bad guy...it doesn"t matter..."
Anastasia approached her husband from behind and grabbed his head. She then fell back onto the bed with Kaiser"s head falling in between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"I like bad boys though~"
"...Honey..."
"Hmhm~" Anastasia licked her lips and planted a kiss on her husband.
"Ana—"
"Shhh~" Anastasia placed a finger over her husband"s lips before saying, "How many times have we done this already? So how many times are you going to act like an idiot?"
"But..."
"Can"t I at least comfort my husband? You can do whatever you want with me tonight~"
Not long later, the sounds of Anastasia screaming in pleasure resounded on the top floor of the large mansion. It was a good thing that their bedroom was on the top floor while their children"s rooms were two floors below them on the 2nd floor.
If not, the siblings would probably be too scared to even face their father. The father who was usually so meek in front of their mother was actually making that iron-fisted mother of theirs scream out in "agony" during the night?
Just what kind of punishment was their mother going through every night then? Was she being punished for acting so high-handed to their father?
If they overheard those screams that were echoing on the top floor, they wouldn"t be able to connect that to something which had to do with baby-making.