Author Note: I am not dead nor have I canceled the Fanfic, unfortunately, work and life gave me an RKO. Between cramming in several projects, finalizing my new living arrangements, and helping my brother move…I haven't had that much time to write. Things are finally winding down for a bit, and I am hoping to get back to writing somewhat normally again. Thank you all for your patience.
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—Cole POV, Several Hours Later—
"Thank you all for your hard work today!", I shouted over the sea of soldiers, "To reward all of you, I have coordinated this bountiful feast for everyone. Please eat and drink your fill tonight, everything is on me!!"
Letting out a joyous cheer, the troops began filing through the lines to grab whatever they wanted. Dipping into the decades of combined food reserves I had in storage, tonight everyone would be eating till they passed out. Motioning for my family to grab food as well, I was about to join them when Renjo came over to talk.
"This is quite a spectacular feast!! In my decade of being an Ambassador, I have never seen such a large amount of food. Your nation must be overflowing with resources to support something like this.", Renjo said with an amazed expression.
"We have done our best to ensure that our people never have to worry about starvation.", I replied motioning to my wives who were getting their food, "Throughout our travels, we have seen many places where families have to pick which children live and die every year. When winter came you could walk down any street, and find children withering away from lack of food. It hurt all the more because we were unable to do anything to save them…all we could do was watch them die."
"Couldn't you have ended their suffering?", he asked before realizing what he was saying.
"I could never bring myself to kill a child under any circumstances, I would rather die before doing that.", I told him honestly, "It's the same reason their parents couldn't bring themselves to do it either. Could you do it?"
Reflecting on that, his face contorted uncomfortably as his ears drooped.
"I…I am sorry, I spoke before thinking properly.", he answered, "My wives and children mean everything to me, I couldn't harm any of them either. Silvelt has been on the brink of famine before, if we were to ever reach that point…I don't know what we would do. I couldn't take their lives, and ending my own would place us in an even worse place. As I make the money, they would quickly run out of funds and starve together."
"If Silvelt ever were to reach that point, please let me know and I am more than happy to help. Allies should always try to help each other in times of need.", I said with a smile, "Enough of this sad topic, we have hundreds of untapped beverage barrels and tons of food to eat! Join in the festivities and enjoy this time!"
Motioning for everyone else to join in the festivities, the UA Students were the first to dash to the line. Having missed out on lunch, due to everything that was going on, they must have been starving and had no patience to wait on everyone else. Watching them closely, none of them appeared to be distressed about what had occurred today which was reassuring. I was concerned that watching me order the deaths of hundreds would have negatively impacted them, but my concerns appeared unwarranted.
Grabbing my own meal with telekinesis, I joined my in-laws who were watching our children for a bit. Watching them play around with them as they ate, it was adorable watching our children try to steal some of their food. Still in the early stages of being weaned off their mother's milk, they were curious about how everything tasted, to our horror. On several occasions, they came close to eating pieces of metal or potion ingredients which would have been very bad for their health. As I took my seat next to Eri, my son Boulder tried to sample his Grandfather Bolton's whiskey.
"Woah there little pebble, this is the good stuff…you can't spill this.", Bolton chuckled as he picked his mug up, "Since yer a Dwarf, I am sure you wanna taste it but I have to hold fer yah."
"Don't give him any-", I started to say as a rock slammed into Bolton's face.
Turning to look in the direction from which it came, I saw an angry Gearnia running toward us. Looking like an angry mother bear, she was none too happy about what her father was doing.
"Don't give my child any alcohol!", Gearnia spat in anger, "I don't want my child to end up being a drunkard like you, you crotchety old man. Boulder doesn't need the bad influences of you, my brothers, or my uncles! He will be raised to be a proper, respectable Dwarven man!"
"Yer being a wussy, the boy needs to put hair on his chest!", Bolton refuted completely ignoring the fact he was assaulted by his daughter, "It's the norm for Dwarven Boys to have a bit of whiskey every now and then. By taking this from him, yer gonna make the boy a wussy!"
Setting her plate down when she arrived, she started arguing with her father much to the chagrin of everyone else. Going back and forth for a bit while the rest of us ate, eventually Bolton turned to me for assistance as the head of my family. Turning to me like I would understand what he was saying, I wanted to sigh right in his face.
"Come on Cole, back me up here.", Bolton pleaded, "You agree with me, right?"
"He's not going to have any alcoholic beverages till he's sixteen.", I said firmly, "If you let him try any before then, I will ram your battleaxe down your throat blade side first."
"Youngins these days…don't know what's good fer the kids or nothing…", Bolton grumbled in displeasure, "Fine, whatever you lot say!"
Hearing a few of the other in-law's snicker at him, they opted not to give their two cents on the matter. Knowing that drinking at a young age was mainly a Dwarven tradition, I knew most found the practice troublesome. With the argument over, peace was restored and all of us started talking with one another about where we went from here. Everyone was curious as now we had more territory to cultivate which was a welcome addition.
"Bolton, I am going to need your assistance coming up with architectural plans for the cities and towns we are going to build here. You helped out with the Special Region so I'd like your assistance here.", I requested.
"I was wondering when you were going to ask!", he replied with a grin, "We should be able to reuse plans from the Special Region here, no need fer anything fancy. If we make it too nice, the populace will be uncomfortable and you'll piss off the nobles…though yer not gonna care about that."
"Reusing the plans is fine, I will leave everything to Gearnia and you like before. Make sure the roads a strong and sturdy, unlike the Special Region I won't be using Weather Manipulation to keep the worst weather at bay.", I reminded them.
"No problem, our work is the best there is!", Gearnia boasted with a big smile, "Dwarven Stonework is untouchable by any other race!"
Clapping with glee, Boulder and the other children started giggling at her. Putting the work talk to the side, we spent the rest of the night with the children and enjoying the festivities.
—Next Day—
Waking up as the Sun started to rise, I heard someone messing around in the kitchen. Sitting up in bed to see if it was one of my wives, all of them were sound asleep with me. Knowing that no one was stupid enough to break into my home, there was only one explanation.
"Malty…", I groaned getting out of bed.
Throwing on my Hero Outfit, I headed downstairs after making sure the children and Melty were sleeping peacefully. Walking into the kitchen to see what was going on, Malty was fighting with the coffee machine.
"Damnable thing, why won't you make coffee! I commanded you to brew, but you won't listen to me! Sapphire said you make their morning beverages, and if you don't work she will roast me alive!", Malty spat in a soft voice, "Just brew coffee damn it!!"
Clearing my throat to get her attention, she spun around with a panicked look. Realizing that it was me, she let out a sigh of relief.
"I uh…I can't get it to turn on.", she said with a meek grin.
"You haven't been taught to use modern tech yet so it's understandable, you just have to turn the power switch to on.", I told her as I demonstrated, "The green light means that it's on and working."
"OH!", she gasped, "I did that, but it didn't do anything."
"You did add water and coffee grounds, right?", I questioned.
Giving me an apologetic smile, she shook her head and said she didn't know what coffee grounds looked like or where to add water. Showing her step-by-step how to use the coffee machine, I made sure she understood how to do it because if she messed this up my wives would kill her immediately. Coffee is their jumpstart every morning…if they don't have coffee, they are like rabid zombies all day.
"I understand, I will make sure to do that moving forward.", she promised with a formal nod.
"What is going on here…?", I asked sensing that something was different about her, "You are being overly considerate today…did you break something…or try sneaking into the children's nursery?"
"NO!!", she asserted shaking her head violently, "You'd kill me on the spot if I tried that! It's..it's that my parents told me that you are the last chance I have to redeem myself. If I don't change or you toss me out, I will lose my head. I know I have done a lot of bad, terrible things…but I don't want to die!"
Staring into her eyes for a moment, I could tell that she wasn't lying. Unlike the previous times I looked at her, she wasn't trying to avoid my gaze, trying to seduce me, or trying to distract me. For the first time, she was being genuine which was a nice change of pace. Since she was making an effort to change, I wanted to help her move in the right direction.
"If you are serious, what are you going to do about those tendencies you have to commit heinous crimes?", I asked.
"I will just have to stop.", she told me.
"Can you really do that?", I pressed her, "Isn't your goal to completely fuse the worlds together to manifest your whole form? I mean, that is why you were helping the Wave Organization…or rather why you founded them."
"Founded them…what are you talking about?", Malty inquired, "I didn't do anything like that, I swear!"
"I am not talking to you…I am talking to the other part of you, the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.", I remarked staring into her eyes, "I know your consciousness is there, stop prolonging the inevitable…Medea Pideth Machina."
Looking at me like I was crazy for a moment, her face froze in horror as a voice that was not her own came out.
"You are more well-informed than I thought.", the Entity said.
Wanting to scream in terror, Malty tried to do so but wasn't able to move a muscle. Medea had a lot more influence on Malty than I initially thought, it was hard to believe that a small Soul Fragment could seize control so easily.
"You're the root cause of her behavior…rewiring her mind, planting suggestive thoughts, and even manipulating her emotions for your own benefit. I assume the only reason she was able to take control was because of her Survival Instincts.", I suggested.
"That is correct, this meat puppet is beginning to lose it's value to me.", the Entity sighed, "What is it you want?"
"I assume you know about the two Deities that interfered with your universe…I need assistance tracking the last one down. He ran off to one of the other two worlds, and is probably preparing to fight me.", I stated, "Since you have influence over your universe, it would be beneficial to work with you."
"Why would I work with someone who is actively interfering with my plans?", the Entity snickered.
Coating my hand in Destructive Aura, I cracked an evil smile. Sensing the Divinity I was exuding, the Entity's expression tensed up as Medea understood what it would do to her if I touched her.
"Point taken…I will assist you in removing the vermin from my universe. If I help you with him, can you assist me with my issue?", the Entity inquired, "I want to regain my Corporal Form, those damn bastards killed my original body!"
Piquing my interest, I asked if she was referring to the ones that killed the Gods in the Shield Hero's world. Acknowledging that they were one in the same, she told me that her colleagues and her fought them several thousand years ago…and lost. Stating that they used magic unlike anything they knew, she said that they overwhelmed them over the course of a few days.
"Those bastards killed us, and drained our bodies for our blood! I lost much of my power because of that!", the Entity seethed, "I do not know where they came from, but I know those bastard Elves will pay dearly for treating me like a prey animal!"