3rd POV
Rachel's father rushed towards Hajin with his sword in hand and slashed it towards him. However, Hajin extented his hand and stopped it with just one finger.
"Isn't this a unique way of greeting, my dear Father-In-Law?" Hajin said with a smirk on his face.
"...!" King Louise widened his eyes and jumped backwards to get a distance from Hajin.
"Who are you?!" He demanded.
"Huh? Didn't I say it already? Or is it one of those cliche scenes when the FMC's father rages when he hears that she found a lover while she was away from him... Father-In-Law~?
"!!!" He widened his eyes at Hajin's remark and turned to Rachel, who silently noded her head, seemingly saying that Hajin was saying the truth.
Upon seeing Rachel's reaction to this, and seeing that their Queen was not attacking, the knights and personals also sheathed their swords and whatever weapons they had.
After all, if it was only the King, they knew he would always be like that. After years of serving him, it was a common fact among the King's subordinates that he was an overprotective father.
In fact, even when the system gave the quest and one of them guessed it could possibly be Rachel's potential lover, the King got angry even then. In the end, Elizabeth, their Queen and their King's wife, had to scold him.
Elizabeth actually wanted Rachel to have a lover, as it would help reduce her trauma little by little. As a mother, she always wanted her daughter to have a better love life than herself, who had been engaged to Arthur, who was a prince at the time. Arthur was really dense and only seemed to care about his role as a prince and as a future king. Of course, he has changed now, but it took a lot of time for Elizabeth to change her husband.
Therefore, She wanted Rachel to have someone better than her father who she herself had. It was a simple yet complex wish.
Well, as the saying goes, only women can understand other women, men are just built too different to understand them.
"You..." Arthur muttered while rushing towards Hajin once again. This time however, it was not because of the unknown, but because her daughter had gotten a boyfriend.
"HOW DARE YOU TAKE MY DAUGHTER?!?!" He excalimed as he attacked Hajin again while crying.
"..." Hajin simply extended his hand again and stopped his sword.
"[System Command : Force Body Paralyzes]" He said.
"... !" Arthur's body suddenly fell to the ground. It was not because of pressure, but because he couldn't move his body. It was as if the blood and bones in his body had become frozen.
"My... Daughter..." He said as he tried to get up, but couldn't. In the end, all he could do was extent his hand towards Rachel, as if trying to save her from falling into a deep pit of darkness.
"... *sigh* Father, please stop it. You look pitiful." Rachel said while sighing. That was the final blow that Arthur needed, he finally gave up and died as his heart was completely broken, sobbing in a corner.
As they were about to go, someone came from behind and hugged Rachel.
"My daughter~ You finally have a lover now! Your mom is so proud..." Elizabeth said as she embraced Rachel, small tears of joy falling from her eyes.
Hajin observed this silently while smiling.
"Anyways..." She said while wiping her tears, "Introduce him!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"Umm~ Okay." She said as she turned to Hajin."Mom, this is Kim Hajin. He's the first ranking cadet in cube and also my saviour in the past and even now." Hajin extended his arms and so did Elizabeth as they shaked hands.
"Nice to meet you, Mother-In-Law." They shaked hands with a smile on their faces.
"And Hajin, this is my mom, and also the Queen of England, Elizabeth Mary Windsor." She introduced herself.
"Pleasure to meet to you, Hajin. And just call me mother, we're not as close for you to call me mom, but mother-in-law seems too long and inconvenient." She greeted him.
"Hmm~ Sure... Mother." He said respectfully.
"Ah, right." Hajin exclaimed as if he remembered something. He extended his hand and opened [Imaginary Space].
"You can come out now, Sweetheart~" Hajin said while opening [Imaginary Space].
Soon, a little girl with doll-like beauty came out of the black sphere that had formed in front of Hajin, and the sphere condensed instantly into a small tiny dot which disappeared from existence.
"...!" Elizabeth widened her eyes at the little girl that had appeared out of nowhere. But what surprised her the most were the similar features the girl had.
Her face, eyes, hair and everything else were very similar to her daughter, Rachel. Not only that, the instant she came out of the black sphere, she hid behind Hajin.'
'That's just like Rel when she was little and before she got her trauma. That habit of being afraid of every little thing that was new... and those lively eyes... there's no doubt! But how?!' Elizabeth thought as her brain began racking up several possiblities of the existence of the little girl in front of her.
"Mother; Meet Evandel, our cute little daughter~" Hajin said as he glanced at Evandel, signaling her to come and introduce herself.
Evandel slowly peeked at Elizabeth by taking her head slightly out just enough for her eyes to see Elizabeth's face. After seeing no hostile or bad intention, she finally came out of Hajin's protection and stood in front of Elizabeth.
"Mm... I'm E-evandel! Nice to meet you... grandmother..." She said and glanced upwards at Elizabeth's face before saying the last few words.
"... Cuuutte!!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she instantly bent towards Evandel, who was taken aback from this action of hers, and took her into a tight hug.
"I'm... too young to be a grandmother... but if my granddaughter is this cute, than I can easily make an exception!!" She stated as she continued to snuggle Evandel into herself.
Meanwhile Arthur, who had been watching the whole situation, could only dispair even more.
'Nooo~~!! My pure little daughter...!' He was already dead, but was revived just to see Evandel, only to die again in a few seconds because of the shock.
[A/N : R.I.P Arthur.]
It continued like this with Elizabeth as Hajin and Rachel kept looking at her, only for her to realize that they were still outside. Even if the barrier had protection magic, it couldn't block things like camera eyes, at least in the open area with no walls. Staying out like this was dangerous.
"Ah-right... *Kuhum* Let's get inside first and talk after..." She said as she went walking into the building in the front which lead to the castle.
Hajin could only smile, satisfied at the current situation. He didn't have to resort to any extreme measure, and was glad that Rachel's parents had such personalities.
His main worry was that he had never "written" barely anything about Rachel's actual parents aside from when she inherited the throne, so ultimately, he also didn't have any information about their personality, and could only hope at the time.
Rachel's father's reaction didn't matter much as that was the usual reaction of most of the dads out there when it came to their respective daughters. Actually, if Arthur actually turned out to be strict and like those nobles from other comics and novels who were strict to the core, he might have had to resort to the extreme measure, that is, settling down the matter with force until Arthur accepted it.
But he was glad that that didn't happen; he didn't have to fight Arthur seriously with that intention. And from his personality, Arthur would probably recover in a few hours to maybe a few days at maximum, it was just because of the initial shock, which was normal.
"..." Hajin glanced at Rachel, who was also smiling while following her mother from behind.
'Looks like she isn't sad about what I did to Arthur... *sigh* I'm glad that's the case.' He internally sighed in relief. He had paralyzed Arthur's body, but it wasn't really harmful actually. What he did was just use normal paralysis that one could use on another person like a friend to stop him from destroying his stuff etc and boosted the magic to the extreme. Thus, it wasn't really harmful. What really mattered however was the way you looked at the situation, and it seemed that Rachel didn't judge the situation in a negative way.
In the end, All was good.
**
-- Guest Room -- The Royal Castle --
Hajin and Rachel were sitting on a luxurious side by side while Elizabeth, Rachel's mother, sat on the sofa in front of theirs as she caressed Evandel's hair, who was sitting on her laps.
On the other hand, Arthur was sitting on one of the sofas as well while Randy silently stood behind him, ready to take orders from anyone present in the room, anytime.
"So, are you gonna explain how you guys suddenly have a child? And one that seems to be of such an age? Because I don't remember Rachel having an affair or anything like that in the past. In fact, I don't even think she ever got out of the castle aside from the public events, which had a very high amount of security, nor do I remember seeing her in a state that looked as if she was bearing a child." Elizabeth asked while looking at the two as she explained her reasoning.
"What you said is true. But that only applies to IF the child is 'human'." Hajin said.
"Hmm? What would that refer to? As far as appearance goes, this little child looks human to me. I also don't detect a non-human aura from her." She was confused now. The child that was sitting on her laps was completely human. She may be overly beautiful and cute, but that doesn't have anything to do with humans. Her behaviour was only very humanly.
"Well, you're both correct and false..." He looked at Evandel and smiled, "Ev, could you transform into your natural form?" and asked.
"Mm, sure!" She said as she closed her eyes, golden light emiting from her body. Soon, several white wings started to grow on her back and her ears grew sharper, but not too long, just enough for her not to be mistaken as an elf... not that it helped though...
Her eyes also started glowing blue as a blakish-blue dress covered her little body, having glowing stars on it as if they were actually alive and real. The aura around her body became more... divine... ?
"..." Elizabeth stared at Evandel, who flapped her newly grown wings and flew towards Hajin and Rachel. She than sat on Hajin's laps as everyone except Hajin and Rachel kept staring at her.
All of them had a shocked expression. However, Elizabeth's face didn't show much of a change, she just continued to blankly stare at Evandel. However, her mind was actually growing crazy...
Not because of her transformation or the power she was emitting, but because in her eyes, she had transformed into something even more cuter.
'How can someone be so cute yet innocent at the same time?!' She asked herself in her mind as she continued to look at Evandel.
After a few seconds, Evandel transformed back into her normal human form, much to her annoynance. She wanted to see that cute creature more!
"So... as you have seen, Evandel is not a human, neither is she born from the natural process of what humans do." He answered her earlier question.
"!" Elizabeth finally came out of her inner world as Hajin mentioned her. But a question popped up in her mind.
"But how did you get her than? From her appearance, I'm guessing she is a fairy, but she at the same time feels like an elemental. And even if she is either of those, coming across a fairy is very rare, and befriending one is no joke. So how did you even get a fairy to be your child?" She asked.
Rachel looked at Hajin, who noded and turned to Elizabeth again, "Indeed. The thing is, we raised Evandel from birth. I encountered her "witch" form when I visited a dungeoun. After defeating her, she transformed into a seed, which later gave birth to Evandel." He explained and paused for a second before continuing,
"As for the reason why specifically us as her parents, she needed nutrients for her growth as a seed. For that, she required blood and mana. She received mana from me and blood from Rachel, which formed what she is currently. She inherited her appearance, behaviour and personality from Rachel, and her powers, abilities and everything else related to magic from me. That's why she recognizes us as her parents." Ending his explanation, he relaxted back as he caressed Evandel and leaned on Rachel's shoulders, who leaned back on his head as well.
"Is that so..." A smile appeared on her face as she observed the sight in front of her.
'My beloved daughter, I'm really happy for you to have found yourself a good and dependable patner.'
"So... Rachel never did it... ?" Arthur asked with a straight and serious face.
"..." Everyone stared at him for his remark, probably thinking 'is that the biggest thing your worried about?' or probably along those lines. Meanwhile Rachel's face turned completely red like a tomato while Evandel was just confused as to what they were refering to.
"No..." Hajin said and paused for a moment.
"In any case, I came here because of the special event at Clancey Islet. Although the event is focused on something else, I think it will be a good time for my and Evandel's "special" introduction." He told Elizabeth.
"Oya, is that the main reason you came here?"
"Not exactly, my real reason was because Rachel was coming here as well. The others are just a sort of side quests."
"Mm~" She noded, agreeing with her reasoning.
"Very well. The ceremony is two days from now at the Clancey Hall. Since going back would be a waste, you can just stay here in the meantime. Think of it as your own home... son~" She said, teasing a bit at the end.
"Of course, my dear mother..." He paused to look at Arthur, and gave a teasing smirk, "And father."
Elizabeth just chuckled at this while Arthur's face just grew redder, not because of embarrassment, but because of the anger and rage boiling in his mind.
"You..!" He stood up and glared at Hajin, however, before he could do something, a hand appearaed from behind and grabbed his shoudler.
"Stop whining like a kid and put yourself together! You're coming with me! One more of your stupid rage moments and we're having a nice and long chat, honey~..." The smile on her face touched her eyes for a second, at least in Arthur's eyes.
Arthur froze in place and got dragged out of the room by Elizabeth, who closed the door shut, but not before saying, "Randy, please show Hajin "their" room." She than turned to Hajin, "And feel free to roam in this place as you please, just don't cause unnecessary trouble. Oh, but you're free to punish someone if they annoy you more than once."
Rachel just blused at the mention of "Their" room while Hajin just smiled back and replied, "Okay."
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Word Count : 2545