Before the chapter starts I want to say this... There were a few people upset that I added an antagonist into the story... Now, I get it's a little cliché to have a superior being targeting the MC for what is seemingly no reason. But there is a very good reason why the MCs brother-in-law wants to cripple Kai. Basically it's because it would shift the balance of power in Sarlyn's favor if the MC would be allowed to gain enough power. He can't outright kill the MC because Sarlyn would go insane, willing to give her own life to kill him, and Nera would do absolutely nothing to help him.
Now you might also argue that crippling the MC would have the same effect... That's not really the case. He knows that Sarlyn is only doing this so that her husband can be by her side and not because she wants more power. If he's still alive, Sarlyn herself has less of a reason to risk her own life and Nera has more of a reason to step in between the two and keep them from fighting. This was something that was going to come up later in the story but I had quite a few people that were upset over that so I'm sorry if its kind of a spoiler for those who didn't really mind it.
Also about the lemon, that won't be happening again. Not because people were upset with it, but it was something that had to be done at some point soon and I decided to just get it done. I won't be doing anymore lemon that don't involve the MC, it was a one time thing and that's all I planned on doing from the start.
***********************************************************
Shizu, Eren, Kaval and Gido were all running through the forest while the ground was trembling.
"This whole mess is your fault Kaval! What kind of idiot goes around stabbing giant ants' nests?"
"Shut up and show your leader some respect damnit!"
"No! You haven't earned my respect! If I die today I swear I'm coming back to haunt you!"
"Hahahahahaha, well come on Eren, that's not even gonna be possible. You wanna know why? Because I'm gonna be dead with you!"
Just as Shizu looked like she was about to turn around and fight the giant ants, a man wearing a black leather jacket, black jeans, a white v-neck, and sunglasses walked out of the tree line. The trio recognized him from the cave and immediately ran to him. "It's you! Please help us!" Eren screamed.
"Ugh. Fine. You owe me an explanation." Saying this, kai charged a ball of blue energy the size of his palm and waited for the four of them to get behind him. At first, Shizu looked hesitant, but when she looked at the blue ball and felt unimaginable danger from it, she decided to trust them all.
Once Shizu was behind him, Kai threw his orb of blue directly through the middle of all the giant ants still rushing him. The orb hit the leading and and it's body instantly imploded. The ants nearby, suddenly found themselves being pulled into the blue orb, which they tried to run away from to no avail. Very quickly, the ants were sucked up into the blue orb and, like the first ant, started imploding the moment they touched the orb.
Kai seeing this, turned around and looked back at Eren, then glanced at Shizu. "Alright, there princess, now lets head back to my place so you all can rest and tell me what happened since I last saw you."
The four of them bowed to him. As they were standing back up, Eren shouted, "Watch out Behind You!" One of the ants managed to not get caught up in Kai's blue, it tried to sneak up behind him, and as it was about to bring its mandibles together around Kai's neck, it fell to the ground. Turning around, Kai saw a red spear impaled out of the ant's head.
"I could've dealt with it dear..." Kai said with a sigh.
"I know, but you didn't let me have any fun. I haven't fought anything other than you since I came here." A voice responded from behind the party of four. All of them turned around and were awestruck by the person they saw in front of them.
Naturally the woman in front of them was Scathach, and she had a bored look on her face but that changed to a small smile when she looked at the four adventurers in front of her.
"Come, we can do introductions back home. Kai, grab my spear and lets go."
"Alright... Lets go you four."
The four just nodded back to him and followed behind him. Since they had to walk back on foot, the trip took them a few hours back to which Scathach ended up getting to know Eren and Shizu. The main reason she did this was because on the way here, Sarlyn told her that Kai would most likely end up going for these two as well.
She learned that the two were adventurers, one of which had quite a bit of experience fighting. This ended with Scathach asking Shizu for a spar later, to which the later was hesitant to agree but agreed nonetheless.
After the few hours trip back, they arrived at the village where the four were dumbfounded at the sight of so many evolved goblins and dire wolves working together and the now rather large town. Kai led them to his own house, which has since been upgraded to be more befitting for him and Scathach.
"Welcome to my home, I run this village along with Scathach here. You are welcome to stay as long as you like. I'll get Rigurd to bring us some food and I'll make us some tea while we wait. Once I get that we can get caught up."
""""Thank you."""" The four responded and sat on comfy looking couch, while Scathach sat down on one of the nearby chairs. The five sat and made small idle talk, mostly the girls, the other two were a feeling a bit awkward, so they ended up just talking to each other.
"Alright, here you go." Kai said as he brought in a tray with cups and a pot of tea.
"Now, lets start. Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Kai Kasani, this is my wife Scathach."
This caused Scathach to spit her tea back into her cup and cough, "We aren't married!" "Yet." Kai shot back instantly, which earned him an eye roll but not a refusal.
"I guess we should do formal introductions as well. My name is Kaval. Not that its saying much but I'm the leader of this group. This is Eren and Gido. While she isn't a member of our party, this girl has been traveling with us."
For the first time since meeting her, she spoke to Kai directly, "Shizu. Thank you for your help earlier, I wasn't sure I could deal with them on my own."
"It's nothing Shizu. I would've helped regardless. Well. Now that introductions are over, lets get down to it. I take it you all didn't find anything in Veldora's cave, and then reported that to Fuze, he told you to come back and investigate and this young woman over here heard you were coming to the Forest of Jura and asked to join. Did I miss anything?"
"Hmm. No not really, we didn't tell Fuze about you like you asked. You pretty much got it right, except all the hell we had to go through fighting monsters."
Kai shrugged, "Ehh it's fine. You can tell Fuze about me now, try to emphasize that my village here doesn't want any animosity with humans."
At this, Shizu tilted her head and asked, "Aren't you a human? I can't sense the aura of a Majin around you?"
"Ohh forgive me. I hide my aura pretty much at all times. If I don't people tend to pass out or run away in fear." Kai then took off his sunglasses and looked at her with a smile.
"See, I'm a dragon. I just prefer to keep myself hidden and live peacefully. I don't want to deal with heroes constantly trying to kill me for something my foolish kin have done."
At first, when I said I was a dragon, Shizu went rigid. After I finished however, she seemed to relax once again but was still a little awkward remember what her teacher went through.
"By the way Shizu, can I speak with you in private. I think I might be able to help you with that little issue I sense in you."
This statement cause her to go rigid once again, but not in anger or fear, this time in utter shock. Looking in his direction she shook her head, "No. It's alright. I'll be fine."
This caused him so sigh and look at Scathach. She understood and got up and pulled the adventurer trio with her out of the room.
"Shizu. You're an otherworlder correct?"
"...Yes...What about it?"
"I am as well. There are only two people who know that outside of you. One is Scathach and the other is my first wife Sarlyn, though she is not in this world. Let me guess, you resent this world slightly because it took you away from yours correct?"
"I do and I don't. Do I resent being taken from my home and forced to live here? Yes. Do I resent the people here for that? No. Not really."
"Hmm. Well hear me out. I might be able to help with your spirit problem there and let you leave this world. What do you say?"
Shizu thought it over and she was about to reject when she heard, { He's not lying you know. My husband really can traverse worlds. Who knows, you might even end up finding your original world. }
Suddenly hearing the woman's voice in her head she silently freaked out and raised her guard again.
'Who are you!?'
{ Relax girl. My name is Sarlyn, I'm Kai's first wife and I'm a goddess. }
Shizu visibly relaxed hearing her say she was Kai's wife but still on guard. 'Can he really take me back to my original world?'
{ It depends on which version of Earth you are from. If you are from the same version as Kai was, then no, any other version yes. Either way, talk to Kai a little more, he'll let you know more. }
Getting the message that the goddess was done talking to her, Shizu looked back at Kai and once again rethought his offer.