The four piggies open the door to their carriage as 4 humans hold out Daren's new umbrellas for them. The pigs had gone and told their servant to buy it for them earlier as they liked that they would not get wet.
The pig men were wearing luxurious robes made from an assortment of blue and red shades. There was golden embroidery with intricate designs all over.
The four pigs step out of the carriage and under the umbrellas. They soon start to take very slow and small steps towards the store. Their fully human servants can keep up with them as they have been used to their very awkward way of walking for a long time now.
"Hmm. What is this wonderful paint? It has such a deep color. This pink would go nicely with our pig clan's house. Oink! Oink! Oink! Oink!" says the youngest one.
"Whoever is inventing these products must be a genius of a lifetime or the backing they possess could be unfathomable. Oink!" said the second youngest one.
"We are just testing waters for now. We will do a background check after the meeting." said the fattest pig.
As the 4 pigs walked into the store, the last customer had exited and Daren got up from the counter to close the shop for the day.
Daren had run out of umbrellas so he was planning on going to get dinner and then cultivate till morning. He needed to stock up on umbrellas to keep getting more people to be sucked into his store.
Just as he was stepping out to close the store from the outside, the 4 walking pigs approached.
"AHhhhhhhh. Walking Piiiiiiiiiiigs!!!!!" he screamed out loud while almost tripping and falling to the ground.
"That's quite rude don't you think young man." said the oldest pig.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Walking and talking PIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGG!" This time, Daren actually fell to the ground.
Back when humans had conquered most of the known universe, they still had not found any aliens. It was pretty much decided that humans were the chosen ones by God to rule all the land in existence so people forgot about the concept of aliens.
Daren had been absolutely shocked by the fact the there were walking and talking pigs in front of him. They were also in human size.
That's when one of Alex's memories came into play.
There were was sections on nonhuman species. The most notable were the Demon Race, Forest Elves, Dark Elves, Demon Elves, Holy Elves, Blood Elves, Dwarves, and Beastmen.
The races above were all the races that had their own realms near or surrounding the borders of the human realm. (Realms are huge pieces of territory that only contain kingdoms and empires by specific race.)
The pigs in front of him were half beast and half-human. Beastmen were basically animals that could walk, talk, and had intelligence on par with humans.
The men in front of Daren had some features that were similar to the Pig tribe of beastmen. They were the result of procreation between a human and a pigman. That's why they had the features of humans and pig beastmen.
"Haha. My bad there. I have never really seen beastmen before so my apologies." said Daren as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off.
"No issues. It was rude but all is forgiven since you were startled by the sudden appearance of a race that you have never seen. Oink! Oink!" says the fattest pig.
"We would like to talk to you about business. We were interested in your store's new product as soon as we laid our eyes upon it. Can we go inside and talk about it? Oink! Oink! Oink!" said the second fattest pig.
"I would love to let you men sit down but I don't have any form of seating inside. I live with my wife on the second floor of the shop but we don't have any furniture in there except our bed," said Daren.
He really did not have any couches in the building. All he had was his chair at the counter and the bed upstairs.
"That's fine. How about we go to a nearby restaurant?" said the fattest pig.
"Okay then. Wait here a moment. I'll have to ask my wife about this. It's her business after all." Daren ran upstairs with speed swifter than the wind.
The pigs were left dumbfounded.
"What the heck? He's a cultivator!" says the youngest pig.
"That makes things slightly more complicated. This young cultivator is clearly not intelligent and totally subservient to his wife. Based on his clumsiness and the way he cowers slightly when talking shows that his wife might be someone hard to deal with. Oink! Oink! Oink!. " says the second oldest.
"She has to be quite cunning and intelligent to not only invent such an amazing material but to also subdue a cultivator and make him into what appears to be a henpecked husband. " The oldest pig was stroking the small goatee on his chin. "This deal will not be simple to conduct. We may have to involve headquarters in this."
The four pigs were all making reevaluations of their situation when Daren came back from the back of the store.
Next to him was an otherworldly goddess with straight, crimson hair. Her tall and slender figure with accentuating curves had the four men dizzy.
The 4 men were deep in admiration when the oldest one had a small thought pop up. "She looks almost like the lifelike version of the Demonic Goddess of Death whose statue I saw years ago." Before he could continue that thought, he was interrupted by Celina.
"Hello there gentlemen. I heard that you men have a business proposal for me. I would like to talk further at the Star Bear Inn if you don't mind." Celina's sweet voice almost made the men faint.
"How can there be such a woman on this planet?!! She's better than almost any of the hundreds of elves I've seen." the four pigs thought in unison.
"That is fine with us. It is only a 5-minute walk after all and with your umbrellas, we would not even get wet." says the oldest as his years of merchant experience had helped him break out the trance faster. He even held in his "Oink!Oink!Oink!" until it burst out soon after.
The three other men also break out of their trance seconds after and nod in agreement to the words of their oldest.
"Hahaha. That is quite true and that isn't the only reason I asked to talk there. I would have just told us to have the conversation here if it were not for the fact that it is dinner time." says Celina in a somewhat mocking tone.
The four pig men laughed alongside her even though she practically insulted them in those words. They somehow had their subconscious convinced that those words were only a kind joke of the goddess.
Daren stood there, confused. His face though kept an aloof and foolish expression. Daren wanted to make Celina stand out more than him. He just wanted to be the untalented husband that is bullied by his boss which is also his wife.
It reminded him of this one drama he watched.
Celina walked past the pigs without saying another word and Daren followed right behind her while opening one of the umbrellas he had kept for himself.
This umbrella was a lighter shade of the blood-like crimson hair that Celina had. He clearly chooses the color for her.
Daren and Celina stayed under this umbrella which was twice the size of the umbrellas that were being sold. It covered the two who were walking with their shoulders touching slightly.
Daren had his awareness set to the max as he did not trust the pigs behind him completely even if they could not really bring any possible physical harm to them.
The pig men followed right behind the group and had engaged in low-voiced conversation.
"That umbrella is much larger than the ones they sold earlier and it even has color." said the youngest.
"It is only getting harder. It looks like headquarters might really have to be involved." said the oldest in response.
The rest of the men nodded and understood that they probably could not handle such a product by themselves. They were only slightly successful merchants that had to listen to the orders of their family with obedience.
This group of pig men walked silently behind the couple. It did not take them long to enter the Star Bear Inn.
It was lively in here as usual with the customer having loud and passionate conversations while eating delicious meals.
Daren and Celina closed their umbrella and gave it to Lilith to hold at the counter. They could not leave it next to the table as it would make it annoying for the staff to wipe the floor of the huge puddle that it would form.
"We will take the usual order," said Celina while paying 15 silver for her meal.
"Hehe. Big sister will never stop eating that much huh.' said Lilith sarcastically. Daren and Celina came here to eat there every meal here.
Lilith was already quite attached to Celina and made small jokes about her eating habits every time. They were almost like real sisters at this point.
"You should eat well little Lilith. You won't ever grow tall like a big sister and big brother," said Celina when she saw that Lilith had slowly lost a little of the chubbiness on her face.
" I will try my best but you should tell my mother to stop forcing me to eat vegetables. They don't taste bad but I just don't like them," replied Lilith while pouting a little.
"What did you say? Stupid little girl, come over here and let mother teach you a lesson. Your Dad will handle it from here." From behind the counter, where the kitchen was, sounded the very motherly yet angry voice of Lilith's mother.
Do not ever ask Daren to describe her as all he could say was that she was a " Goddam MILF". She is a curvaceous lady that does not have any wrinkles on her smooth, white skin.
Her breasts were magnificently large and almost the size of Daren's head. Her behind did not lack in size either. " If only she was not a mother and a wife." thought Daren.
It was a good thing that he had Celina or he might have tried something on one of the rare, pretty girls that gave him seducing looks on the streets.
As Lilith was hesitating to go to her mother, her burly and muscular dad that stood at over 220 cm walked in. Lilith tried to give her dad a sorrowful look to try and convince his kind heart to tell her mother off.
"Little Lilith, I know that you see me eat tons of meat all the time but that's because I am an adult and can be slightly carefree with my diet as I was blessed with an amazing figure."
Celina was trying to convince Lilith to confront her mother. Over the week, Celina had grown as a person and could show many more expressions.
"You should balance your diet and eat healthy so you can grow closer to someone with my earth-shattering level of beauty."
Daren took back his compliments for Celina's growth. She was still the narcissistic person she was on day one.
"Okay...." said Lilith with the softest tone. She reluctantly walked away and left the reception to her father.
"I hope she learns. Sigh," says Celina as she walked towards an empty table at the corner.
They would not be dining with Arlene and Rusky as those two had apparently gone back to their village to handle some 'family matters'. Rusky's massive clientele of the rich was appalled and made complaints when he had informed them.
To keep them under control, Rusky promised to add in a set or two of his new designs for free. He then said goodbye to Daren and said that he would bring a surprise for him when he came back.
Daren and Celina were sad to see their friends leave but they could not stop them.
The customers were startled for a second seeing the finely dressed, half beastmen that sat with Daren and Celina.
"Let me introduce ourselves. I am Litus Manipus. These are my younger brothers, Cotus, Dosus, and Milsus. Oink! Oink! Oink!" said Litus, the oldest and fattest pigs. He gave his younger brothers name's in order of oldest to youngest.
"We are representatives of the Manupus family's business in the Gigantus Empire. Our Manupus all sorts of products throughout the human, elf, and beastmen empire. Oink! Oink!" continues Cotus.
"We have many stores all over these realms and believe that your product of umbrellas and its material has immense potential. Are you willing to sell either of the umbrellas or their material to us in large amounts? Oink! Oink!" says Dosus.
"Hmmm." Celina took all of this information in and started to process it. "I'll have to refuse. I am not willing to sell my product for anyone else to spread. I plan on making my own merchant company."
"If you did not want to make any negotiations at all, why did you take us here? Oink! Oink!" asked the youngest, Milsus angrily.
"Oh. I just wanted to make your pigs lose some of the fat around the edge of those ginormous stomachs of yours. I was also hungry and did not wanna waste my time dealing with the ramblings of you hideous things."
'Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.' thought Daren. 'She really has learned to become two-faced like me. I really love that feistiness. Hehehe.'
"How dare you insult us!!!" roared Litus as he and his brothers rose from the table in anger. "You will pay for this! Just you wait!"
The pig men walked away in anger as their attendants followed behind them and took out their umbrellas. Litus wanted to rip these umbrellas up be he did not want to return to his carriage soaked so he held it in.
The entire inn was not surprised when they heard Celina's vicious words. They and been eating here regularly for a long time and had learned that Celina's god-like appearance was the complete opposite as her real personality was more like a demoness.
Most of the commoners in town had ever seen Celina being her wild self in front of the Marchioness. The Marchioness and Celina would often go to restaurants and bakery's all over the city and converse loudly about all sorts of strange topics.
The brothers got into their carriage and the driver took off instantly.
"Let's inform the family's headquarters at the capital today," suggested Dosus. "Given that she has a cultivator on her side, we will have to use our own family's cultivators or borrow one from a nearby noble."
"Before that, let's get our men to do a background check. We can't just make plans without seeing how deep this goes," said Litus. The walk back to the carriage made him calm down and get to think things through clearly.
"Yes, big brother. We shall do as you say. We have to remember that no matter what background our offenders are, we will make sure that they do not come out unscathed."
...
Asmodeus City ( Capitol City of Gigantus )
A very frail figure was seated on a large chair decorated with countless small jewels. It was a pure-blooded pig beast-man with a shriveling body and had no features of humans. It was an actual, walking pig.
This elder beastman is now reading a report from his great-grandsons that he had sent to take care of their business in Igrit City.
"How dare this woman insult us!! They have no background whatsoever and come from a backwater village. Just because her husband has some talent in cultivation, she really thinks she can stop us from taking what we want."
The old man was very angry. Since childhood, he had been taught that only two things were important to this family. They were money and honor. Now that someone had attempted to harm their honor, they shall not be spared.
"Butler Xu." says the old man. This prompts a human butler, clad in black, to appear in thin air. This butler Xu was middle-aged and had a small number of wrinkles from the amount of stress he has been through. \
He has an iron jaw and deep-set eyes. His aura exudes danger and indifference. "What is it that you require my liege."
"I order you to send one of our Body Strengthening cultivators and a hundred trained men to Igrit City. Tell them to meet up with my great-grandsons that are there and listen to their commands." orders the old man. He may be getting on in age but his voice still had authority embedded deep into it.
The butler nodded and disappeared back into thin air. Butler Xu was in a hurry to send out their forces as he knew the patriarch was impatient when it came to matters about honor.
At the very center of Asmodeus City, the Grand Imperial Place stood tall and proud. This gigantic plot of land encompassed about 13%.of the city's land.
This was a considerable amount given that this city had a diameter of 13 kilometers.
Inside one of the many rooms at the palace, a tall, slender, and silver-haired man looked towards the vast city and made a deep sigh.
"It seems the Manupus has started to make moves. These greedy bastards will not get out of this without taking a massive loss.