"Okay, Calm down first. Val, what do you mean you don"t deserve to face Lala anymore?"Val"s crying lessened and although there were still a few sniffles, it was minor compared to his earlier outburst.
"Was this guy always this emotional?"
Cole knew that Val was a pretty expressive guy considering he told his lifelong wish in a fight between a hero. But he didn"t know it was to this extent. He tried viewing what the tag attached to him said.
----------- Valerion von Blitzkrieg -----------
Race: Black Lightning Dragon (Half-form)
Age: 323
Status: Deep Regret
-------------------------------------------------
"Deep Regret? What did he do to Lala?! Did he cheat on her? Accidental pregnancy of another woman or Dragon?!"
Cole felt that maybe it was something grave and dire but at the same time had a hunch that it was something incredibly stupid. He gave a look to Felicia since she was closer to Lala and signaled the twins to go deal with the presence hiding behind the bush.
"Um, Sir Val, could you please explain the situation to us?"
「...」
Felicia crouched down to meet Val at eye level and put on her best calm and ensuring smile. Val let go of Cole"s leg and sulked a bit in a crouching position before he started to talk.
「I...」
Val hesitated for a bit because he knew that if he was to continue with his sentence, he would probably get beaten up by Cole. But at the same time, he wanted to get the issue of his chest.
「I got Lala pregnant again...」
Cole and Felicia didn"t know what to say at first when they heard the news. Shouldn"t that normally be something worthy of a celebration?
"Congratulations!"
"Congratulations!"
The two first tried shouting out congratulations. Maybe Val"s parents didn"t like for some reason and drove him out? They were grasping at straws here. Cole also tried asking Steward.
"Steward, give me a list of reasons why a man wouldn"t be happy over his wife"s pregnancy."
〔And I"ll put this sofa here- Oh, yeah, give me a sec... Here. Maybe I should adjust this plant"s position.〕
〔1. It"s not his baby〕
〔2. It"s not the gender the dude wants.〕
〔3. Didn"t follow the family plan they had set up?〕
〔4. Eh? I dunno〕
He didn"t know where Steward was getting a sofa from and didn"t care. He focused on the 4 reasons that Steward came up with.
"It"s his baby so it"s not 1. Val isn"t the kind of guy who cares about the gender of his kids. And the last two are unsure."
Cole honestly just felt like beating up his best friend but he knew that he would have a proper reason for crying so much. If he didn"t, he would beat him up. Who knows, he might be able to accidentally send him all the way back home again.
"Hey, Libra? I have a question to ask you."
Cole decided to ask Libra this time since maybe a Spirit who has probably lived for at least a few hundred years would have a better idea why than an AI whose best suited for war.
Although it would be his first time trying to establish a mental link between him and Libra, he decided that there wouldn"t be any major problems.
「Haha! You just activated my-- Ah wait. Eva, your dad is calling.」
「What is it?」
It seemed that Libra was in the middle of playing a card match between Eva. Cole could care less whether or not he activated his trap card or not and got straight to the point.
"Why would a guy be sad over his wife"s pregnancy?"
「That"s a strange question, but whatever. Hormonal imbalances, I guess? Anyway, You just activated my Trap Card!」
「What? That"s not how it works? Yes, it is!」
Cole cut off the link and told Felicia couldn"t think of another reason why either.
「*Sigh*... It"s not something to be happy about...」
"Why? I"m sure Lala was happy when she found out about her pregnancy?"
The few times Felicia had the chance to interact with Lala, she noticed that she was fond of children and was very protective of her own yet still gave them freedom. Val had a difficult look on his face and tried to explain.
「You see, Lala actually used to be quite the tomboy...」
"She still is."
When Felicia thought back to the time where Lala was angry at Val, she could definitely see her tomboy side act up.
「And when she was pregnant with Braith, we all thought that it would be smooth sailing from there on but...」
〔There"s always a "but."〕
"Shut up, Steward. I"m trying to listen to the story. Go back to decorating or whatever."
〔If you say so.〕
「She got in an accident because me which made her body incredibly weak after she went into labor... Although she seems to be perfectly healthy... If she goes into labor again... I don"t know if her body would be able to handle it.」
Tears started to drip from Val"s face and he began to cry once again. Cole and Felicia faced each other and helplessly shrugged.
They both thought that this Dragon may be a little too kind for his own good. Cole crouched down and patted Val on the back.
"It"s fine. I"m sure that you two will be able to overcome that trial together."
Val wiped any remaining tears of his face and his Dragon characteristics started to recede little by little. Cole then asked Val a very important question.
"By the way, Val, I have a favor to ask."
「? What is it?」
"I need you to go to the〈Huaxia Zone〉with me for about maybe 2 weeks."
「...」
"Wow! Exploiting people while they are mentally and emotionally vulnerable!"
"That is the true meaning of friendship."
Gemi and Mini came back to the scene with a round of applause for Cole"s bluntness. They were sitting on a red-haired woman whose face was covered with fear and her teeth were constantly jittering.
"Hey, at least I asked."
"Gemi, he didn"t deny it!"
"I know!"
Cole ignored the existence of the human chair and so did everyone else. The twins seemed to be amazed that Cole had actually admitted his actions. Well, they were just overexaggerating things.
"Hey, you two. Doesn"t that sound a little mean."
Felicia was about to start lecturing the two on how it wasn"t a nice thing to slander someone"s reputation. Before she could do that though, they said.
"I think what"s meaner is the fact that you three are ignoring us sitting on a person."
"Well, we don"t know that person."
"I have no kind of attachments to that person whatsoever."
「The person in question tried to take me back home by force without soothing my emotional stress. If they were a normal villager, I might feel like helping them.」
Felicia, Cole, and Val spoke in order. This caused the human chair"s face to morph into a mix of shock, helplessness, and despair along with a remainder of fear.
"Hey! I may just be a regular human but that doesn"t mean you have the right to diss me like that! Besides, I"m Mia Miller! The sole human being able to use Teleport in the entirety of the--kuh!"
Before Mia had the chance to cotune her grand speech about equality(?) and about how important she was, Gemi sat cross-legged on her, increasing the weight she would have to bear.
"Shut up, peasant."
"Kuh!"
Mini did the same and brought out his tablet again, he was playing a zombie survival game this time. When Felicia heard her name, she had an epiphany and realized something.
"Wait, Mia Miller..."
She looked as if she had thought of something very important, when Mia saw this, her heart was filled with hope. Hope that one of the poeple present recognized her prestigous name.
"So, it"s like M&M?"
Her hope was crushed in an instant.
"HAAA?!"
When Cole heard what Felicia said, his mind instantly thought of the milk chocolate ones that his mother would always buy in big packs because he loved them so much. Well, he liked anything that was sweet or milky.
"Like the candy? I don"t like the ones with nuts."
「There"s a trading firm by the same name here.」
Val thought back to the nice couple that ran the trading firm. They were part of the group of humans that his Clan placed their protection over. Val liked their bread the best.
"?! How dare they use my name as some kind of joke!"
Mia felt her pride utterly shattered and her face turned as red whitd as her hair. Her knuckles turned white from her force and trembled slightly with frustration.
"Why do I feel so helpless in this situation?!"
"Um, because you are?"
"!!"
Gemi was the one who answered. When she thought about how the person underneath her was being treated as a livng chair and was being made fun of the people around her while being compared to a business and chocolate candies, she felt like an a.s.shole all of a sudden.
But hey, she didn"t mind it since she was just told to deal with the person hiding behind a bush. Gemi thought that she had shown her chair mercy considering that she didn"t kill her instantly.
"Did this girl just read my mind?!"
Mia, meawhile thought that maybe the people she was captured (not really) by were a lot more terrifying than she was originally led to believe.
"And, no, we can"t read minds."
Mini was the one who answered this time. As useless chatter continued to sp.a.w.n from where they were, Val had finally fullen gotten over crying and told Cole he was fine with it.
「Cole, great timing actually. I was planning to head over to the〈Huaxia Zone〉anyway after I was done crying.」
"Fleeing from responsibility?"
When Cole heard the words that came from Val"s mouth, that was the first thing he thought of.
「What? No! It"s becaus the Dragons living there have magical properties in their tears. I was planning to beat one up and give it to Lala.」
"Then why were you crying so much?"
If he already had a plan in place, why didn"t he immediately go through it? It would have saved him a lot of time and tears. To Cole, time was an important weapon that he couldn"t afford to waste. It was why he would push asking about things to later and focus on stabilizing his own situation first.
Val sheepishly scratched his face.
「She"s my wife! And she might die because I was... You know. I can"t cry as a Dragon and I didn"t want to flood the cave back home so I went here. She would make fun of me if she were to see my red and ppuffy eyes.」
When faced with his best friend"s embarra.s.sed yet smiling face, Cole felt like laughing at the lovestruck fool.
"Make me meal as a reward for having to deal wiht your tsunami. Guys, we"re going back to Headquarters."