CHAPTER 11: HONEYMOON (4)
~11.4~
*****
“How do you like it?” Hannah asked. “The food’s great, huh? How are you enjoying the resort? Didja have fun last night?” She smirked with that last part.
“As a matter of fact, we did!” Alethea said proudly. Kye was taking a bite of waffle and froze. She was so shocked that her food fell back onto her plate. Michelle giggled, and Adele stared blankly at the pink-haired girl.
“Oh? I bet that room’s a mess now. Four girls your age? HA! Didja break anything? Didja?!”
“Saya-chan!” Kye’s face was solid red.
“Who’s that?”
“Me!” Alethea said. “One of my past names is Sayaka Sakaguchi.”
“OH, the reincarnation plot! Tell me more!”
“Well, Kye is Shiori Sakaguchi, the undefeated legend and the world leader who took down the tyrant Emperor Shiro Shikigami.”
“That sounds like a fascinating tale.”
“It has a bad ending…” Kye said with a frown. “I…” She looked at Alethea. “Go ahead and tell them. I’ll step out. I don’t even want to hear that part of the story.”
“We could just… not talk about it,” said Alethea. Hannah narrowed her eyes.
“I don’t want to hide it either.”
Alethea nodded, and Kye created a solid barrier around herself and her food. Alethea told the story, including what happened after her own death.
“Your daughter, Suzuka, grew hateful and everything just… fell apart. That’s… I’m so sorry.” Hannah jumped up, broke into Kye’s barrier, expanded it, and pulled her into a hug. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry you went through that. I wish I could’ve been there for you, but I’m here now. Did you ever cry?”
“What? Huh?”
Hannah pulled away and looked Kye in the eyes. “Did you ever cry after it happened?”
Kye averted her eyes. “No.”
“Look at me, sweetie. I don’t care if you’re some ancient champion that reincarnates all over the place for the goddess, an immortal from Athas, or the most powerful soul in all the worlds. Right now, and forevermore, you are my granddaughter and I love you very much. How have you survived all this time without crying?”
“I didn’t carry past memories into most of my lives. So, it wasn’t as bad. I only had a feeling of sadness, rather than memories of it. Besides, I don’t deserve to cry.”
“Of course you do. More than anyone, YOU do. I can’t even describe how much bravery it must have taken for you to do what you did. I can’t think of a single thing more difficult than that. Even now, I can see it in your eyes. You loved your daughter with everything you had. Any parent deserves to cry after what you did. Let it out, sweetie, I’m here for you.”
“No.”
Hannah was surprised not at Kye’s refusal, but at the serious look in her eyes. “Wh-”
“I will not. Not until I have brought her into this world and made good on my promise to her. Only then, if she forgives me, will I cry.”
Hannah smiled at Kye’s dedication. “Very well. I support you. But I think we have much to talk about.”
Kye raised an eyebrow.
“You carry so much pain with you. Let me help you with it. Just talking about it can help quite a bit, and perhaps we can slowly work through it.”
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Kye smiled lightly. “I appreciate the thought, but my life’s story is not something one can cover in an afternoon, or even a few years.”
“That’s quite alright. I’ll work with you for as long as you need if you’ll allow it.”
“We’ll see.”
“Okay, hon.” She hugged Kye again before leaving the barrier.
Kye got rid of the barrier and told everyone she had an announcement before returning to her meal. “So as my pink-haired beautiful wife here somewhat alluded to, we… succeeded in things and I am expecting twins!”
Everyone except those that already knew dropped their silverware and looked at Kye, mouths agape.
“HA! You should see your faces. I bet mom and Lanti are making those faces right now!” She grinned. “Not only them! The dragon sisters probably are, too! Michelle is expecting triplets!”
Michelle shrugged. “To be fair, they knew what you were planning, and knew we would be here with you… so, ya know.”
“AND!” Kye turned and eyed her attendants. “Yep. Both of you. I know you got down and dirty with your boyfriends last night.” She made a gesture with her hand, pointing two fingers at her eyes, then at the sisters.
Liliana did the innocent whistling bit, but Aliana merely nodded. “Yep.”
“Want to know?” Liliana’s eyes instantly darted to Kye, and everyone could see the proverbial stars in them. Kye smiled. “You have two, Lily, and Ally has one.”
“Wow…” Even Hannah was surprised. “So that’s… eight? Eight more royals to come.”
“How in the world do you even know? It hasn’t even been twelve hours!” Alexandra said.
“I can sense their mana. Even before the biology begins, I can feel two more unique mana signatures within me!”
“Remarkable,” Astraia said with an analytical face. “There’s never been a documented case of a child’s mana coalescing before fertilization, and believe you me, we have checked. I’m a bit of a researcher and have tested couples the day after many times and it’s never happened before. Kye, you need to keep this information confidential. It’s not normal.” Kye began to fret, but Astraia immediately caught on and corrected herself. “It’s not normal, but it’s safe.” She focused very intently, but could not sense them. “Perhaps it’s less unusual… and more that we aren’t adept enough to tell. You say you have two more mana signatures within you? I can’t find them at all.”
“Really?” Kye began to think about it. She flashed back to early in the year when she was first starting to work on ideas about why everyone had trouble with aether. “Hmm.”
“The four of us can sense them,” Adele said. “Lily, Ally?”
Both nodded and focused. Lily smiled and said, “It’s very faint to me, but I can tell there’s something there. I can’t tell that there are two within me, though.”
Astraia was thinking hard about it. “I wonder…” She glanced between them. “Kye, Michelle, the two of you can see souls, so I suppose coming from either of you, it wouldn’t be as much of a surprise. Alethea, Adele, how well can you sense the ones within them, and the ones within your attendants?”
Alethea glanced back and forth. “Kye’s two and Michelle’s three are much clearer to me. I actually can’t tell there are two within Lily.”
“I see.” Astraia eyed each for a moment, then returned to Kye. “I can only surmise, but… tell me, are these new manas within you familiar at all?”
Kye closed her eyes and focused. “I hadn’t looked that deeply yet…” While she could sense the unique manas within her, it was difficult to read them properly, but with significant effort, she could. She smiled when she figured it out. “Yes. I recognize them.” She gave Alethea the biggest grin. “One of them is Azalea, and the other…”
“Is it?” Alethea couldn’t hide her excitement.
“SUZUKA!”
The two cheered together. Everyone around the table, after hearing the story Alethea just told, was smiling at the news.
“Congratulations, Princess!” Liliana and Aliana said together.
“And you?” Astraia turned to Michelle.
“Yeah. Mine are our kids from Athas. They wanted a way in, and it seems they planned to take the first opportunity. Heh.”
“Anna, Ariel, and Adriel?” Kye asked. She eyed Michelle’s belly closely. “Yep.”
A sudden “wah” came from baby Kaede. “Kaede, sweetie, what’s the matter?” Alethea rushed over and took the child from Hannah. She quieted down and fell asleep. “Hehe, you jealous thing.”
“So, we have eight new royals on the way, eh?” Hannah said. She exchanged glances with Alexandra and Ginchiyo, each of who were simply smiling at the expecting parents. Then she eyed Kye closely. “Kye, hun, you’re gonna let your dear ole grandma in on their childhood, aren’t you?”
Kye chuckled and looked at Kaede. “I will destroy everything about that law. Give me a year or two and it’ll be a bygone conclusion.”
*****
Meanwhile, in a black and purple mansion overlooking a purple sea, Shiro was meeting with his subordinates.
“Lord Phantom, they are currently on Atlas. It seems they are married now, have adopted a child, and are on a honeymoon,” Elliot reported.
“Ah, they must have known of that child’s reincarnation ahead of time.” Shiro chuckled. “However, there are more reincarnations in progress. It seems the blond girl, Kye, is pregnant, as is the redhead girl, Michelle.” He sighed as he stared at the picture of Kye on the wall. “I need an S+ class beast. Are there any remaining?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I no longer wish to recruit those two. They’ll never join us, so it’s moot. From here, cancel any plans to do so.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Send an S+. I want them dead. Even if they’ll simply return to this world later, this will buy time.”
“Yes, my lord. It shall be done.”
*****
Revision: 2024-1-29