"Welcome back, Your Lords.h.i.+p!"Before even half of the people managed to enter the small world, the male trio that could hold the t.i.tles of the first settlers noticed the commotion and approached me. Falling down to their knees as soon as they get into a proper hearing distance, they all bowed.
"Brother!"
Suddenly reminded that Heila was, in fact, a sister of Gabriel"s helper, I couldn"t stop a slight blush from surfacing on my head, as I realised that I set off to save their families, and returned with her hanging off my arm! But from the looks of it, either this poor guy didn"t realise what our relations.h.i.+p looked like, or kindly decided to ignore it. No matter which was it, I couldn"t help but feel guilty as h.e.l.l upon recalling what did I do to his wife!
"You little… Come here!"
Raising his head, the middle-aged man suddenly broke. As if his entire seriousness was nothing more than just a pretence, his eyes turned watery as he stretched his arms forward.
Without a moment of hesitation, Heila rushed towards him, falling into his embrace. Unable to contain the strength at which she approached him, both of them falling to the back. Just as I thought that I would be able to get away from this place and push the topic regarding both of the girls from this poor guy family, Jessie appeared out of nowhere right beside me.
"Dear?"
With tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g in her eyes, she jumped into the tangled mess, only increasing the disorder at which the thee of them was hugging each other. With this touching reunion swiftly noticed by the rest of the people coming to my small world, it didn"t take long for Gabriel"s wife to appear as well and sink into the arms of her husband.
Seeing the opportunity to leave and take care of other matters at hand, or rather, escape the inevitable situation that would appear as soon as Jessie would open her mouth, I was about to sneak out, when my peace got obviously disturbed.
"Dear, I have happy news! I will be able to bear our Lord"s child!"
As if a sword of Damocles was hanging over my head, I was unable to escape in time, forced to just stand there in place, unable to guess how the situation would develop. After all, if this poor guy followed the earthly morals, I would be the sole cause of the first major discord in my own d.a.m.ned society!
"Wait, are you serious?"
Pus.h.i.+ng his wife away at the lengt of his arm, the man"s face turned serious, before he moved his sight on me, causing my entire body to twitch in uneasiness. With how I wanted to appear to be an amiable lord for those people, cuckolding one of the first three of my subjects didn"t seem to be a good start!
"I"m honoured!"
Suddenly, the man pushed his wife aside, and with his face somehow br.i.m.m.i.n.g with joy, he hit his forehead against the ground, kowtowing before me.
Seriously, what the f.u.c.k? Your wife just admitted that someone not only f.u.c.ked her while she was away from you, she even went as far to announce that she might be pregnant with another guy, yet you are bowing to me as if I saved you from the greatest peril that could ever happen?
"Not only that! Both me and Heila will be warming his bed from now on! I myself don"t have any idea what did we do to deserve such honour!"
At this point, I couldn"t help but just smile wryly, as if I could make any sense of the ongoing situation. But despite my as calm as the fake front I had to put on, my thoughts were a mess.
Even someone as unsocial as my former self could say with all certainty that this guy was truly happy when he heard the news, that would devastate any other loving husband. From the way in which he hugged his wife, I had no doubts that he really cared for her, yet despite that, he was still happy to hear that she might be already carrying my child, and if she does not, his d.a.m.ned wife would do her best trying to reach that sort of end result!
With all the words that appeared as I was talking with Heila, my opinion about the morals and virtues of relations.h.i.+ps in this world were slowly crumbling, but it was this guy genuine elation that deal the fatal hit to my previous approach to the topic.
I couldn"t judge the people of this world, with the values of my old one!
If they were happy with someone stronger than them impregnating their wives and sisters, then who I was to judge? I had to avoid this common racist approach, where I believed my own standards to be better than those of the other cultures, only because in some aspects, my society managed to reach further than the one I was facing right now!
"They are right. While I designated Heila to be my mistress, I don"t mind laying down with your wife, in order to gift you a wonderful child."
With my previous morals crumbling to the dust, I thought that saying those words would come easy, but when it came to actually utter them, I still found myself quite embarra.s.sed if not disgusted!
It seems I still had a long way to go!
"My lords.h.i.+p…"
With a new voice interrupting this strange moment, I could finally breathe in relief. I still had to sort out everything in my head, so there was no better timing for Gabriel to draw my attention away from those people.
"Yes? How can I help you?"
Turning to the side, I saw the oldest of the first three settlers, approaching me with his wife hugged to his side. Despite how touching their reunion should be, her face instead of br.i.m.m.i.n.g with happiness was shrouded by a veil of uneasiness as her cheeks burned in shame.
"My Lord, it seems my wife couldn"t trust you when you first asked her about my sons" whereabouts. Come on, Uliana, you need to speak for yourself now."
"My Lord… I"m deeply sorry for lying to you! Your words simply sounded too good to be true. I didn"t know you were the lege…"
Just as she was about to call me something, Gabriel tightened his grip on her face, stopping her midword. As if some sort of deep feeling got shaken off from her, she shook her head as if to clear her thoughts and picked up where she left.
"As I said, I thought that we would simply go from the torture chamber to h.e.l.l, so I lied about our sons. It seems, they managed to escape the clutches of the death, and followed the remaining survivors to the ancient sanctuary!"
Was this sanctuary the ruins that Heila mentioned back on the canopy? Thinking about the context, it would seem right to a.s.sume that, but it was always better to ask in order to be sure there was no mistake. The reason why they approached me was as clear as my love to Eve, and since I was already set on visiting those ruins deep in the forest, it would be nice to know beforehand if those refugees from their clan split up and went two different ways, or was this ancient sanctuary just another name for the same place.
"And I guess you wish for me to save them as well? Before we get any further into this topic, is the ancient sanctuary you spoke about, akin to the old ruins of your ancestors located deep in the forest?"
With how vastly different our standing had to be in their eyes, it would be hard for them to request something from me, especially after telling me about her lie. Even if I could wholeheartedly understand her reasoning and actually support it, it would still weigh on their souls, making it even harder to break the barrier of standing that would block them from just speaking their wish outright. So in order to make it easier for them, I decided to be the one to formulate the request and then turn it into my own question.
"You are willing to go into the sanctuary?!"
Out of nowhere, Gabriel suddenly stood up, with his face turning pale. His eyes widened in surprise and fright as if he saw the devil himself ascend from the h.e.l.l in order to put an end to this world.
"Your lords.h.i.+p! I implore you, by no means, do not accept saint offering! While some regard being the Hero of the people as the greatest blessing that one could be granted, in fact, its nothing else but a deathly curse!"