"Why do I have to take care of her!?"

Valkner scowled up at his mother's gorgeous red face and pointed his finger backward at a pouting Ezkalda. Normally their parent's hold over him would have calmed him but the sobbing girl at his rear made it difficult. Out of his siblings, Ezkalda was perhaps the most annoying. Between crying and being so weak, she may as well have been born a human instead of a mighty demon! Yet their nurturing warlord for a mother continued insisting Ezkalda was good for Valkner and tempered him; rage begets nothing without control and emotions to guide it.

"B-Brother w-won' play!" Ezkalda cried and brushed at her teary eyes. "I-I just want him to sh-show me some skills!"

Their mother's plum-colored eyes and their brows furrowed but her answer was predictable as she pointed a pair of spiked tails at Val. "You have to take care of her because she wishes to spend more time with you! What is so hard about accepting your role as the future leader? You will have need of your siblings!"

Valkner's rubbed his stubby horns, groaning and lowering his head.

"Urgh! Fine!

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Valkner couldn't help but feel that today was going to be long and awful. Particularly now that he was spending it with his sister.

"Big brother, can you show me some skills?"

Ezkalda's lips curled with feigned innocence, pushing two of her fingers gently across the top of the wooden counter. Thankfully their guests had spent the morning enjoying the inn and its garden -- after a warning to not eat any of his dangerously awful cherries -- and left him largely able to contain her. The downside was that he didn't have nearly enough stats to even try to club her to death.

"No." Valkner slapped her fingers with the back of his hand, trying to ignore her and keep an eye on the door. "When does he show up, Darmia? Am I going to have to deal with his entire entourage?"

Jigalta's clambering around within the storage didn't dissuade his sister but it did distract him; Val looked away just long enough for Ezkalda to hop down and smooth her dress. When he really thought about it, it seemed short-hemmed enough that Ezkalda was trying to draw attention but not show the goods. Knowing that she had all but effectively betrayed what it meant to be a demon and now slept willingly with one of the men who doomed their family was disgusting. It was still hard to stomach that a hero had been granted her spousal privilege. Now he would live forever, always able to gloat and oppress Valkner for eternity.

Little did she know, he could actually use magic now. Val flicked a mana concentration at her ass and got a jump out of her, forcing her to nearly whack him with her tail before she remembered her control and stopped the spade from likely clubbing him to death's door.

"He'll show up in a few days so until then we can relax." Her eyes narrowed, Ezkalda moving to rest against the wall beside the door. Tuscetta had been assigned to keep an eye on everyone, leaving a nice chair for the demonette to sit on.

"And his entourage?"

Val's pushy attitude didn't surprise Ezkalda even after all this time, drawing a finger from her rather than an answer. After all these years she may very well be his only family and it was the most unfortunate situation imaginable. Especially now when he rough-guessed her stats compared to his; given the presence she boasted compared to his older power, it was likely Ezkalda had stats in the multiple hundreds and reaching for a thousand. He had been in the thousands but now?

Valkner Gaustein's Current Statistics

Strength: 8

Endurance: 8

Dexterity: 10

Wisdom: 10

Intelligence: XXX

Charisma: 14

Ezkalda seemed to figure out where his mind went and asked him an obvious question. "You've seen your intelligence, right?"

"... A few times," Valkner grumbled. "But I think I know why -- they never removed my mind or memories, so it didn't truly go away. Rather... it's... locked."

"So you know! You really are still smart!"

Laughter filled the front and Jigalta poked her head in, confusedly looking between the pair. The truth was that Valkner's mind still recalled his impressive skill knowledge and how his skills worked. Many skills like [Identity Check] were beneath him and simply part of greater skills such as [Omnipotent Eye] -- a racial skill he had been born with -- and had never even occurred to him. After losing a few hearts to his youthful foolishness, he had been picking his brain for answers and trying to piece together. Even without the skills that had allowed him to comprehend his raw power and skills, the heroes hadn't fractured his power enough to deduce Valkner likely still had a vast majority of his intelligence score because it was ingrained into him over centuries of life. Many would've argued it should have been easy to draw on such knowledge and get one skill that scaled off of it.

Yet very few forms of magic -- very rare ones -- grew exponentially with power using intelligence. The only thing such a high score granted him was a quick learning ability. It was the reason Valkner learned skills so quickly when finally meeting the conditions his conquerors had instated when sparing his life. One of the few blessings was that there were still others alive who could teach such skills that had endured the same Demon Royalty training. The only problem was the biggest bitch in his family was the only one he knew and she was the lover of his enemies.

Jigalta's presence required his attention however and finally, Valkner turned it fully upon the curious slime. "Don't worry, my sister is just angry because I pointed out she's only Kaden's third wife; nothing more than a pleasure squeeze."

Jigalta frowned but Ezkalda's scowl was what earned a smirk from the smug prince. Even as weak as he was, she didn't have a retort nor the wit to snap back. Ezkalda didn't have a stat that granted her courage against her elder brother -- a superior son faced against the failure child of the entire family ensured he was nothing but victorious.

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Yet something deceptively evil chewed at Valkner's mind and forced him to lessen the smirk to a smile. "Get her a drink -- while she's here, I may as well treat her."

"Okay!" Jigalta piped up, vanishing into the storage noisily again. Both siblings looked one another in their devilishly pink eyes beneath their disguises. Friendly half-elves on the surface but an angry demon brother glaring down his surprised sister beneath it.

"What did you cast on me?"

"Nothing," she answered hastily. "I'm actually impressed you can have some class. I don't judge you for running a shitty inn but you judge me for surviving?"

Valkner didn't believe her about being innocent but he couldn't recall a spell that might have been used so flawlessly on him. She had [Wordless Casting] but without a proper spell, it was impossible to do something like make him be nice to her. Magic clearly had advanced and it wasn't surprising; if a demon prince could be beaten so quickly, why couldn't the humans and demons of importance crafted new skills and spells beyond his knowledge? Jigalta returned with a glass of the good wine and hastily thrust it into Ezkalda's waiting palm. A call from one of the lady guests drew her gaze and she rushed away, leaving the siblings truly alone.

Neither knew what to say now between their judging. Ezkalda had lived like a noble in the lap and on the bed of one of their greatest enemies while Valkner had struggled to even get paltry skills and assistants in two centuries. But there was one thing that came to Valkner's mind that he knew she would have to answer. Her eyes flickered at his pinching lips and her face softened; she had used [Mind Read] and he knew it. There wasn't a need to ask the question now but instead glare across the room with a slowly growing anger welling up from within him.

"We're not going to talk about her, Valkner." Ezkalda stood up and drank from her glass, barging out the doorway with a dismissive wave. She was running away but even with guests present Val wasn't going to be stopped now, leaping across the counter and chasing after her. The demon trudged down the steps and into the empty area of his inn's front.

"No!" Val grabbed her shoulder and shoved Ezkalda to force her to spin around. Her eyes met his with such guilt he only felt reassured now. "Tell me what he did to her!"

Ezkalda's fingers tensed around the glass and she drank again. It was the biggest tell in the world and she immediately realized it from the rate she started to down his offered booze. Valkner grabbed her dress and shook her, knowing it would only take one swing of her hand to kill him if he upset her.

"I almost forgot that day but you were betting on that weren't you?" He hissed beneath his breath, glaring at Ezkalda with one final demand.

"What did Kaden do to the Slime Queen's daughter after he slew the Queen, Ezkalda? Did he really bottle her? Or did you watch him murder her, too? You're nothing but a traitor and his henchmen right? Did you help him? Did you kill her and enjoy knowing you made her an orphan? Made me unable to know if I was-"

Ezkalda's eyes exploded with mana and she shoved him, sending Valkner sailing through the air. She had done it so effortlessly but it didn't hurt him. His sister let the inn do that. Valkner crashed through the solid wall of his inn and across the main room, rolling a few feet before colliding with the counter and blacking out.

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"My beautiful Queen, look at you... so delicious and splendid as always."

Valkner brushed his hand through those blue, gooey soft locks of hair she mimicked, staring at the core deep within her chest. It was strange how warm it was to sleep in a bed with their bodies pressed to one another. Slimes always had seemed so cool to the touch but she nuzzled her face into his neck as any demon or human might have with the same comforting feeling. If anything, he felt she was different and more affectionate -- he didn't care about how she looked just as he didn't care for what others thought of him. He was going to get his own dungeon and already had plans to make the Queen his wife.

She kept still, letting him dig his hands slowly and intimately into her soft back to grab her core. It was the most trusting thing a slime could do since it only would take a hard squeeze to end her life.

But beyond that, it was more intimate to feel the bulge of a new core budding from its surface.

"You're certain it isn't mine? I mean... we've been-"

The Queen giggled, gently brushing her palms against his chest before sitting up and staring down at him. "I'm sure. We didn't start having sex until some time ago, right?"

"To be specific, three months ago. But you've cleaned up my room more than a handful of times after I had my fun with a slave or two." Valkner released the core and slid his hand free, caressing her cheek instead. "There's still the chance its mine; particularly since you won't tell me. I expect you to do so when we arrive at the dungeon."

The Queen rolls her eyes and pats him. "I'll tell you a few days after its born. It's better to make our big bad Prince sweat, isn't it? Whether or not he had a slime bastard before taking my hand in marriage?"

Valkner growled but only for a moment. There wasn't enough toughness in him to try and intimidate his lover. One day his father would be gone and they would be in charge of the demon world -- free to finally bring the peace and prosperity both had fought centuries for. They could grow ancient and see the world itself blessed with their progeny. It would be a golden age where there may even be the birth of a new elite demon species. Val closed his eyes and laid back, sighing in resignment.

"I'll just wait until it is born then... but you better tell me after tha-"

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Valkner's eyes shot open, gasping for air and clutching his chest. The redhead adventurer -- Veronica -- kept her eyes tightly shut and her hand out, feeding healing light across his body while everyone else watched. The realization he was dreaming crushed Valkner's sole heart and felt like it might kill him before he saw the gaping hole in his wall.

"My inn," he wheezed. "Fucking... inn.... repairs... are a fortune..."

Jigalta's soft thighs thunked down into his view, her hands grabbing his cheeks and gently turning him to face her. Luckily, his horns were just barely short enough to not brush up against her groin. "Are you okay? Darmia said their cart came off its block and struck you! You shouldn't have been trying to move it all by yourself! Tuscetta or I could have helped you if you asked!"

Ezkalda had at least formed an excuse for her defensive shove but it wasn't going to be fitting if he thanked her. It was going to be better to weigh this over her dumb head and force her to finally talk. All of these adventurers could have bumped into his horns or his disguise could have failed -- if that had happened, they would have very much suspected and run her out of hiding. The familiar stomping of Albricht's chain-ladden boots made Valkner wish for more time but he was pleasantly surprised to see the bright human crouch down and give him a thumbs up.

"Don't worry, we're going to fix the damage up! The old man is a carpenter so it should be good as new by morning. Veronica says you're going to be okay, too. You apparently don't have anyone able to use healing magic on your staff though -- could we teach you?"

The question warranted an entire speech about how out of luck Valkner was to get taught after he actually needed the spell to keep himself from dying like a ragdoll. If it wasn't for the fact he wasn't quite feeling his right arm yet, he might have actually given Albricht's happy enthusiasm the middle finger. But the truth was that with Ezkalda here, being able to heal meant he could not only protect himself but both Tuscetta and Jigalta.

"Teach... neutral... no... school... learned."

Albricht raised a brow in confusion but Veronica sighed and swatted him with her tome. The leader of the party seemed plenty whipped by the able-bodied acolyte -- for everyone's benefit no doubt -- and didn't seem content to spend the time looking over Valkner. Alone with his healer and his disguised goo, Valkner quietly looked up at Jigalta for a painful minute as he thought of the best way to ask. Once he was good and ready, he lifted his good arm and gently grabbed her by the hair, dragging her down in a way that would have hurt someone normal but thankfully didn't garner any attention. All their guests were contently cleaning up the mess or consoling Albricht's wounded pride.

"Jigalta... bring Darmia... to my room. All three of us... need to talk.

The half-slime's blessed core must have rattled with excitement at being requested to join him in his room with a guest. Even if they were playing siblings, she may have thought it was snack time.

But this night was far from over; he wanted one of the descendants of the slime race to be present when it was spoken of but wanted her to help judge Ezkalda's truth in the matter. Darmia's identity would be a buffer to ensure Jigalta analyzed the character of his deceptive sibling.

It was time for him to be the intimidating big brother and see that his curvaceous, power-hungry almighty sister remembered that throwing him through walls didn't come without punishments of their own!