"Wasn't I supposed to wake up? Why does my bed feel so squishy?" Nox couldn't help but wonder aloud in confusion.
After the failed dream in the beast pantheon, he found himself swirling in a dark, gloomy void of nothingness. No matter how much he tried to look around, it was futile; only complete darkness met his gaze.
At first, he thought this was just another dream since it wasn't the first time he'd had multiple dreams consecutively.
And he didn't particularly know how this dream worked, but he just decided to go with the flow. Sooner or later, he would wake up to his boring mundane life.
While he was still trying to make sense of the dream in this strange space, a bright flash of light suddenly appeared, and he could finally see his surroundings.
"Hmmm, white snakes?" Nox was puzzled when he saw the scene around him.
All around him, he could see thick, white-headed, shiny snakes slithering about inside what appeared to be a sea of slimy water.
Normally, Nox might have felt disgusted by the shiny, slimy creatures, but surprisingly, he felt accustomed to them. Only when he observed himself did he discover the reason for his lack of disgust.
'I'm one of them, am I not?' Nox helplessly sighed, thinking this particular dream was especially wild.
"Push! Just a little more!"
At that moment, there was a slight disturbance in the sea of white snakes, and Nox, the short-looking snake, felt his body being squeezed and pushed in a direction with bright light.
Whether it was instinct or not, nobody knew, but all the shiny snakes began to rush toward the light like a tidal wave. Nox was no different; he had this instinct that if he didn't reach that white place, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
Determined, the short, thick snake used brute force to shove its larger counterparts aside and finally reached the opening.
Just as it was about to squeeze through the glorious portal, a second slimy snake came out of nowhere, struck Nox aside, and dove into the opening.
'Bitch, that won't be happening!' the short snake thought angrily as it quickly bit into the slim snake's tail. With a pained expression, the slim snake tried shaking Nox off its tail, but it was futile. The latter clenched with all his might, and in the end, they were both sucked into the bright white opening.
"Congratulations, Lady Aina, you gave birth to a beautiful set of twins." A pregnant blonde woman with green eyes beamed with a smile as she looked at the exhausted figure of a red-haired woman with piercing eyes of the same color.
"Where are they?" the red-haired woman whispered weakly. "Let me see my babies."
Although she appeared exhausted from childbirth, her lean, feminine muscles were still visible, and she exuded an otherworldly aura, like that of a seasoned warrior who had fought many battles and witnessed bloodshed.
When the blond maidservant, Camila, handed the twins, wrapped in warm cotton clothes, to Aina, warm tears slid down her cheeks, falling on the beautiful pair of twins who both inherited their fathers black eyes.
'My beautiful babies,' She whispered, controlling her tears as she held the two tiny twins close to her bosom.
The process of childbirth had been excruciatingly painful, especially for someone of her species. She'd nearly lost her mind, but the only thing that had kept her sane was the thought of seeing and holding her beloved children.
Even though she had initially expected only one, Aina was still grateful for having two. Looking at her children, Aina clenched her fist as she inwardly swore to protect them with her life…
So that they would not encounter a similar fate to their father.
With a wide smile on her face, she guided the mouths of the two caterpillar-like babies to her breast. The two little ones had zero table manners as they hungrily drank their mother's milk.
It reached a point where the eldest of the twins, the girl, weakly brought her hand to smack her brother to let go of their mother's breast as the distribution of milk wasn't even.
In retaliation, the latter only increased the pace at which he sucked, making his sister cry loudly.
"Hahahahaha, these two will be very troublesome when they grow up." Camila and Aina burst into laughter when they saw this scene. She could already see the Cromwell Mansion turning into a mess due to these two fighting.
Camila had served the Cromwells for close to a decade, and this was the first time she had seen her mistress laugh so happily since that incident. Subconsciously, even she started smiling.
'Someone with a good heart like her doesn't deserve all this misfortune. She should be happy,' Camila thought.
"Hmph, did your brother hurt you? Do you want me to spank his butt?" Aina said as she tried to appease her daughter, who felt wronged because of her wicked brother.
Smack! Smack!
Aina lightly slapped the baby's bum twice. They'd expected the baby to cry, but to their surprise, there was nothing of the sort, which left them puzzled.
'Is this the part where I'm supposed to cry?' Nox, who had regained his consciousness for a while, thought.
Seeing the two women looking at him strangely, he decided to give them what they were expecting.
"Wuwuwuwuuwuwu!"
When they saw him cry, the two breathed a sigh of relief, but Camila couldn't help but narrow her eyes. She found the way the baby cried to be very disturbing and unnatural.
Thinking it was just her imagination, she pushed the thought to the back of her head.
"Have you thought about a name, Mistress?" Camila asked. She was currently holding the stubborn male twin who had refused to follow his sister's footsteps and sleep.
"I have, but let's wait for Father-in-law to come first." Aina smiled as she caressed her daughter. Although her daughter's face looked chubby like any other newborn, Aina knew she would grow up to be a beautiful young lady.
'The only problem would be her ego,' she thought, resisting the urge to pinch the cheeks of the newborn who had an extremely proud, arrogant expression while sleeping.
In the blink of an eye, hours passed, but the mother couldn't leave the side of her babies even for a second as she watched her children with happiness and sorrow in her gaze.
Although she was very happy, Aina couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart because… her children would never experience the love and security of a fatherly figure.
A bit of time later, the beautiful woman fell asleep while holding her children close to her bosom protectively.
As she fell asleep, little did she know a certain fat cat with lustrous white fur was looking at Nox with an evil smirk.
Somewhere in the western region of the Vermilion Kingdom, Mad Clan bandit group hideout…
~BOOM~
~BANG~
Tendrils of violent blue flames snaked through the ground, setting rows of tents ablaze; the flame power was so fierce that it directly exploded the tents into smithereens, raining ashes throughout the peaceful forest.
The little animals hiding underneath the bushes winced in pain as they scrambled for safety, while looking at the catalyst of this destruction with hateful glares.
"Hehehehehe… so beautiful."
In the midst of this destruction, an old bag of bones with shiny bald hair was looking at this scene with maniacal glee in his eyes. Although he was skinny, this man, who seemed very close to his sickbed, was packed with muscles and vitality that could even put youths to shame.
"Dear Sir, please spare us!"
"We would change our ways!"
"I have a wife and kids at home. Please, I don't want my wife to be a widow."
"Hmmm, these worms are still here?" An annoyed expression appeared on the man's face as he stared at the bandits who had disturbed his beautiful moment.
For months, this bunch of lowlifes had been terrorizing the citizens, stealing their goods, kidnapping people, and committing other heinous crimes that he didn't even want to think about.
At first, he had overlooked them, but after their persistent tyrannical nature, he decided to finally make a move.
And the result was…
The entire bandit encampment was razed to the ground in just two minutes.
"I should've left this region. They warned me about this madman, but I didn't listen." The leader of the bandit group, a muscular woman, said while trembling in the presence of this powerfully built man that had flickers of flame swirling in those fierce eyes of his.
"What are you willing to pay for your price, scums?" The man sneered, regarding the bandits like insignificant ants. "Your freedom depends on the price you're willing to offer, so think quickly. My old bones are aching for a sleep."
'Damn you! Shameless bastard, we are the bandits, we're the ones who are meant to be extorting people, not the other way around!'
Everyone there had the same thought as they looked at the shameless man who exuded the aura of justice.
With a defeated look in their eyes, they began to retrieve bags of silver coins and other weapons from their spatial storage, and in a couple of seconds, a mountain of weapons and coins formed.
The old man displayed a shit-eating grin, revealing his white broken teeth when he saw the heap of treasures.
With a simple wave of his arm, the treasure disappeared, and he looked at the bandits who had extremely furious expressions. That was months' worth of extortion!
While the bandits were cursing this man in their hearts, they suddenly felt the shadow of a massive beast coming down from the heavens, casting an ominous shadow all around.
"Shit! What's that?"
They became terrified immediately at this sight.
Above their heads, they could see a massive black and red-scaled wyvern emitting a menacing aura.
"Thank you for the offering. This old man really appreciates it. Till next time then!" While they were awestruck, the annoying voice of the old man reached their ears. They looked up in time just to see the bag of bones leaping through the air, seating his bony butt on the saddle of the beast.
Immediately he was seated, the beast bolted into the sky, disappearing from the bandits' sight, eliciting a collective sigh of relief from all of them.
Once they were a considerable distance away, the young boy steering the beast couldn't hold back the thought he had been suppressing all this while.
"Master, I'm curious though, why are you sparing the bandits when you could kill them and end their tyranny once and for all?" the boy asked.
After several expeditions of raiding bandits with this man, the youth couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer.
However, the answer he got wasn't one he was expecting.
"Hmph, where's the fun in that?" A sneer appeared on the old man's face. "If we kill them, how would we extort them in the future? Think, boy… we need to keep the circle going on and on."
"My Lord, that's…"
"I know what you're thinking, but don't say it…" The old man displayed a grin. "Let's just go visit my grandkids."