Chapter 511.2: You Pass As a Father! (2)
Chapter 511.2: You Pass As a Father! (2)
He looked at Charlotte and saw nervousness on her face. Her hands were placed over her womb, almost as if she was trying to protect her future child. The sight of that left him with a lump at the back of his throat. He quickly nodded his head and expressed his agreement.
Charlotte was surprised to see that.
“Darling, you aren’t going to follow your ancestor’s plan?”
“I never said that I was going to carry out that plan. Plans ought to be tailored to the circumstances. Kaldor was probably an incredible person to have been able to seal off Flooding Death, but that doesn’t mean that his plan is infallible.”
Roel placed his teacup down and grabbed Charlotte’s hands before continuing on.
“The Kingmaker Clan is in a vastly different state from before. Its days of glory have long passed, and I am its only awakener in the present era. Humankind is also nowhere on par to the golden age of the Ancient Austine Empire. We don’t have the means to deal with the Mother Goddess or the Savior, be it together or individually. Besides… I can’t allow those ancient monsters to harm you.”
“Darling…”
“From the moment the Six Calamities set their eyes on you, we’re already fated to be enemies. There’s also our child to consider.”
Roel caressed Charlotte’s cheek before leaning in to kiss her. The kiss calmed her down. Feeling cherished by Roel, a smile returned to her face.
“I’ll at least give you a passing grade as a father.”
“That’s only worth a passing grade? You’re strict.”
“Of course. Even if it’s you, I’ll still get angry if you don’t look after our child.”
“Is that so… I can already see our child growing up spoilt under your doting.”
“Who says…”
Charlotte sharply refuted Roel’s remark, but her face reddened a little out of guilty conscience. Roel flashed her a helpless smile before pulling her into his embrace. The two of them relished in each other’s warmth and heartbeat for a long time before slowly parting.
Roel thought about the earlier conversation they had, and he suddenly became curious about something. He turned to Charlotte and asked.
“Just out of curiosity, if I had insisted on having an implicit alliance with the Mother Goddess to fight against the Savior, what would you have done?”
“I’d ignore you until you change your mind.”
“You would? Are we going to sleep on different beds too?”
“Ah? P-probably not… I mean, we have already been together for so long…”
Roel’s sudden question caught her off-guard. Charlotte averted her eyes awkwardly as she explained herself.
“While I’d have been angry at you, I wouldn’t break our promise… Your body is not in a stable condition yet. It’d be terrible if you suffer a relapse from any one of your conditions.”
“…”
Watching as the blushing Charlotte tried to explain herself in a fluster, Roel felt deeply touched. Now that he had finally resolved this issue, the exhaustion he had accumulated from browsing Flooding Death’s memories overnight finally came settling in.
“Darling, are you tired?”
“A little.”
“Let’s head to sleep. Staying up overnight is still too much for our bodies to bear.”
Charlotte noticed Roel rubbing his eyes and proposed turning in for the night.
With their hands locked together, the two of them made their way to the bedroom and laid down in each other’s arms.
Roel gave her a light kiss on her forehead before fatigue finally got the better of him. It didn’t take long for him to fall deeply asleep.
Charlotte listened to his rhythmic breathing and took in his warmth. The worries that had been weighing her down for the entire night seemed to have dissipate into nothingness. With a light heart, she swiftly drifted off to dreamland too.
…
Ever since Roel assimilated the remains of Flooding Death, the concentration of curses in Golash’s Basin had significantly plummeted. This was joyous news to the Rosaian scholars.
The high concentration of curses amassed here and their gradual spreading to nearby lands had deeply worried the Rosaian scholars. They had tried organizing clean-up operations, but those proved to be not very effective.
Even when Flooding Death was dead, its curses retained an unbelievably high level of immunity to spells. The only thing that worked was Jewel Magic cast by a transcendent possessing the High Elf Bloodline, but it went without saying that the Sorofyas couldn’t possibly clear this gigantic mass of curses by themselves.
Ignoring it was also out of the option due to the treacherous nature of Flooding Death’s curses.
Admittedly, Golash’s Basin wasn’t part of Rosa’s territory, and Rosaians weren’t all that devoted to protecting the natural environment from degradation. What truly made them anxious was the nearby river that flowed down to Rosa’s agricultural fields.
Should Flooding Death’s curses seep into the underground water, it could flow straight into Rosa’s fields. That would have caused a huge catastrophe, for even the slightest wisp of the curses would have been fatal to an ordinary mortal. The Sorofyas would never have been able to tolerate something like that happening.
It was truly fortunate that the curses had started to dissipate since Roel’s intervention.
What happened afterward bewildered the scholars.
Just a night after the concentration of the curses started plummeting, they received an order for them to retreat from Golash’s Basin. Some of the scholars voiced their opposition, insisting that they ought to keep an eye on the situation lest the situation worsened without them noticing.
However, Roel was firm about the matter. He ignored the scholars’ protests and ordered the Diamond Rivière to return to Rosa right away.
He knew that the curses wouldn’t be able to continue spreading after he had assimilated Flooding Death’s remains and there was no use cleansing a land of death, though what was more important was the safety considerations here.
Being gazed upon by the Mother Goddess was no joking matter.
Roel had a feeling that the Six Calamities would take action soon though he didn’t have a strong evidence behind why he thought so. He had to remain here previously in order to assimilate the Crown’s Stone, but now that he had accomplished what he set out to do, he didn’t want to stay here for even a second longer.
Other than the threat of the Six Calamities, the Saints Convocation had also shown up during the battle with Flooding Death and fought with the Rosaian soldiers. In view of that, the Rosa Merchant Confederacy had just launched an all-out campaign against the Saints Convocation, and it was said they had already achieved some success over the past few days.
Even rabbits would bite back when forced to a corner.
There was no saying what the evil cultists would do when they were cornered. In any case, Roel didn’t have the spare time and attention to deal with them, so it seemed unwise for them to linger in the area.
Kurt and the others from Rose of Dawn, who had come as reinforcement in the earlier battle, had already left with a sample of Flooding Death’s curses after they had confirmed that Roel was out of danger. Thanks to that, Roel and Charlotte were able to enjoy their peace for the last few days, and there was no need for troublesome goodbyes.
With that, the Diamond Rivière finally embarked on its journey back home.
Along the way, Roel and Charlotte continued receiving treatment from the medical team.
Roel had grown significantly stronger after absorbing the Crown’s Stone, reaching the peak of Origin Level 3. The replenishment of his mana also reinforced his physical body, reducing the frailty he suffered from his severe blood loss.
Charlotte was particularly ecstatic about his recovery as it meant the restoration of his window with his ancient gods, most notably, Peytra. She finally understood just how difficult it was for someone of her constitution to bear a child after many attempts, and Peytra’s blessing was the greatest ray of hope to her.
Roel was also enthused about the return of his ancient gods, though the one whom he wanted to meet the most was someone else.
Roel sat on a chair by his bedroom window and gazed at the night sky outside.
In his hands were a beautiful auburn-haired woman with a flushed body, lying asleep against his chest. The room behind them was an utter mess.
Looking at the exhausted but satisfied Charlotte, Roel picked up the emptied out ‘Love’s God Kiss’ and exhaled deeply. He silently thanked the System in his heart.
The frequency of their lovemaking had become much higher in recent days, especially because they were already returning to their respective positions. Charlotte had plenty of work to be done after returning to Rosa, so she wouldn’t have as much free time anymore.
More importantly, they wouldn’t be able to share the same bed once they were back at Rosa.
“There are elders back at home. It’s too embarrassing to share a room…” Charlotte said with a reddened face.
While Roel had already proposed to Charlotte, they hadn’t been through the proper formalities. It would be a breach of etiquette for them to share a bed at this juncture, especially with so many elders around them.
It was under the pretext of Roel taking care of her that they shared a bed previously, so it didn’t feel right for them to continue the arrangement now that the reason was no longer valid.
Roel understood where Charlotte was coming from and reluctantly conceded on that.
The knowledge that they would have to temporarily part ways caused their lovemaking to become even more intense and frequent. In truth, Roel was not in a good condition for that as he hadn’t recovered from his blood loss yet, but he was fortunately able to maintain his dominant position thanks to the help of ‘Love God’s Kiss’.
Of course, he had to pay a hefty sum for ‘Love’s God Kiss’, but he thought that it was worth it.
While stroking Charlotte’s auburn hair, his lips curled into an affectionate smile as he remembered the conversation he had with Charlotte a while back.
After assimilating the Crown’s Stone, Roel had a talk with Charlotte about his ancestors’ views on the Mother Goddess, and the two of them even had a discussion about that. However, that wasn’t the only thing he had seen in Flooding Death’s memories.
Astrid wasn’t the only visitor to Kaldor’s place.
Many other people had visited him before her. Most of them appeared to be the descendants of other races from the Twilight Sages Assembly.
Of them, there was one who stood out to Flooding Death.
It was a woman with black hair and golden eyes, traits that suggested that she was from the Ardes’ main lineage. Her clothes, which were even more opulent than Astrid’s, hinted at her high standing in the clan. Unfortunately, her conversation with Kaldor was mostly blurred out, preventing Roel from figuring out her identity.
Nevertheless, from the bits and pieces that he heard, Roel could tell that they were discussing something related to the Savior. That was a topic that he was deeply interested in as well, so he paid close attention in hopes of catching some important information from it.
Little did he expect to hear a familiar name from their mouths.
Grandar.