As part of our plan, we pull out the golems and strategically position them. Shortly after we finish our plotting, Saghieh, the red-skinned Housekeeper, appears near the edge of the field and observes us. It seems that Sanaz has finally calmed down, since her personal fuck toy is back at her job.
The relationship Roxanne's parents have is more open than mine, so they have a large number of casual partners, but they don't have an actual harem, although the Housekeeper is definitely Sanaz's favorite.
Perhaps she's like what Poosh is to me.
Roxanne gently waves to her, and she comes closer. As she approaches, she shoots a measuring look at Jarn, who suddenly turns her unmoving, stern-looking face towards her observer.
The stern Housekeeper seems to be subtly unnerved by the golem, but then she ignores Jarn completely and stops before us.
"Yes, Lord Roxanne?" She inquires, her RBF making her look like she's glaring at my pale wife.
"Has my mother calmed down?" Roxanne soberly asks.
Saghieh nods and holds her hands in front of her waist in a lady-like posture. "She's resting, yes."
"Good. It's unbecoming of someone like her to be angered so easily," I remark with a carefully trimmed stern tone.
Now Saghieh glares at me with an intensity that's even stronger than Yunia's. She must have some devil-type blood in her, giving her the skin color and the face of a shoujo villain.
I still find her really attractive, tho.
"Madame Sanaz is not used to being threatened in her own home," Saghieh slowly replies, enunciating every word.
It's sort of a slight against us as imperial nobles to call Sanaz a "Madame," a title reserved for the nobles of Avgin that has been co-opted by the daemonic aristocracy.
"It's also my home," Roxanne coldly retorts.
And we remain silent, waiting for the Housekeeper to bark again, but she shows a lot of self-restraint and doesn't reply.
"We really do hope that the esteemed Sanaz is now in control of herself again. It would be a shame if that previous display was all I had to see from her," Yunia subtly taunts.
And Saghieh remains as calm as a lake. "I assure you, she's reflecting on what happened. She was simply overwhelmed with emotion due to Roxanne's sudden return."
"We did send word that we were coming a few days ago," I point out.
"For something as important as Lord Roxanne's return, a few days are nothing to calm the nerves of a mother," she replies with icy cold conviction.
I let my draconic gaze stab at her, and her grip on her hands tighten. "Yet she seemed less than excited to see her daughter again," I riposte with the same tone.
She swallows once before replying, "If you'll forgive me for being frank, she felt betrayed by Lord Roxanne's departure. It left a hole in her heart that still hasn't closed properly."
I'd say that's probably why this estate feels so "empty."
I nod and rein in my glaring. "Hopefully, she'll be open to mending their relationship."
Saghieh seems to begrudgingly nod back in agreement. "We don't think she's trying to undermine things, she just has a very clear opinion about who's at fault here."
Taveez's laughter suddenly draws our attention, though I continue to watch the strict Housekeeper for a second longer, and I'm rewarded with the sight of her face paling in fear as the two doll golems throw the little girl around with [Telekinesis] as if she were a volleyball.
Behrouz sweats cold, internally regretting his choices, but he keeps his face devoid of emotion to not give anything away. After our "demonstration" of the golems' precision, it'd take someone ten times as strong-willed as him to argue against this idea.
The golems may seem like they're being reckless, but the precision with which they can manipulate spells is enviable, even to Roxanne. They do need to cast spells simply to move, so it's understandable that they're this good at it.
The girl-cum-volleyball comes so close to the horns of a statue that she could prick the back of her head on it if she twitched, but the golems don't waste more than a second before they punt the girl forward again, and her delightful, childish giggles resound through the garden once more.
I think we're a bit more fond of dangerous stunts than what the average person would consider "normal."
"Blame our lifestyle," Alissa replies through [Bind] and sends an internal shrug.
Ted's and Suzy's synchronization with each other is something that only the legendary elven Twin Warriors could beat. They know of each other's limitations so perfectly that they correct the mistakes of the other before they can even happen.
It's truly marvelous to see them ragdoll the girl all throughout the garden, always bringing her mere centimetri away from grievous wounds before punting her towards the next danger.
"B-Behrouz…" Saghieh stutters his name, too astonished to formulate a proper sentence.
"These golems are incredible, no?" He stiffly replies, but the red woman doesn't pay attention to his tone.
"P-perhaps we should ask Sanaz for permission f-for this…?" She gives him an exasperated glance, then glues her eyes on Tavi again as she also sweats cold with worry.
"Permission? You really think she's in any danger?" I interject with a scoff as I fake a snooty tone.
Her tone turns surprisingly soft as she pleads, "L-Lord, please-…"
"Ted, switch!" I shout, then I leap out of my chair and use [Telekinesis] to propel myself forward and upwards.
Tavi is punted back towards the table, then guided to softly land on my chair.
"It's over…?" She moans and pouts cutely.
The golems catch me with their spells and make me fly around at high speed all over the garden.
It's kind of fun, but timing is everything, so after a few more moments of this, they land me in front of Saghieh again.
"Would you like to have a go?" I softly ask her with an innocent smile.
The red of her skin subtly pales. "No, thank you, Lord Wolf," she stiffly declines.
I shrug, then I pick up Tavi from my seat and sit down, setting her on my lap. I do this so absentmindedly that by the time I realize the wives' influence in my actions, it's already too late.
"Pedo," Roxanne's teasing voice echoes inside my mind, and I grit my teeth in annoyance.
Tavi seems quite happy and comfortable on my lap, for some reason, but I still get the golems to distract her because I'm definitely not comfortable right now.
"You just have an aura that makes young girls comfortable around you," Alissa explains, and I feel like Ciel wants to tease me about this, but she's simply too pure to banter.
Then Gify decides to drop from my shoulder and entertains Tavi, surprisingly letting the little girl touch her, which is rare for my little nature spirit.
Yunia sends a gentle poke through our connection, helping me focus back on the plan, then I smirk and state, "I'm a Golemancer, and I trust my creations so much that I've made them our permanent bodyguards since they need neither sleep nor rest."
Saghieh silently turns her eyes to the doll golems, and I notice her pupils subtly dilate.
"Do I still have a room to call my own here?" Roxanne suddenly asks.
The Housekeeper gracefully nods and gestures towards another part of the estate. "You do, Lord Roxanne. All of your previous belongings are still there, though it isn't large enough for all of the Ryders to sleep there."
"I'd like to see it."
She bows deeply. "Then follow me, please."
Just Hana and I accompany them because what we want right now is to get Saghieh to return to Sanaz.
We enter a wide but rather empty room. There's a lavish bed that can fit three people, a gold-adorned wardrobe, two gold-adorned trunks, a long shelf full of old books, and a writing table with a chair that looks out the wide window with a nice view of a garden.
Even we don't have that many belongings to fill out our bedroom, but at least it fits with the overall grand design of elven architecture because the patterns that decorate every centimetri of the walls are what makes it beautiful. This room, on the other hand, just feels empty.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"I never had a lot of cute things, to begin with," Roxanne comments wistfully, then she walks over to the wardrobe and opens it. "I had a lot of dresses, though. I guess my parents liked to dress me up."
I put points in [Southern Maokai Language] and look through the titles of the books. Most of them are technical books about magic or [Alchemy], and only a few are for entertainment.
"Your parents let you read erotica?" I reflexively ask as I look over the suggestive names.
"Why shouldn't they?" Roxanne asks back confusedly.
I snort. "Right, I forgot that we're still in Rupegia, not to mention that you're a succubus…"
"That doesn't mean that I'm lewder than the average humanoid," she retorts with a pout.
"Uh-huh…" Hana grunts mockingly.
I give my succubus a questioning look. "You say that your kind isn't promiscuous, but you have an event that's literally named Sexual Celebration."
"Well-…" She begins, but her retort dies in her throat.
My smug smile widens into an infuriating grin. "Well…? We're waiting…"
"Suck my clit," she mumbles and looks away, her thin tail twitching in annoyance.
"Gladly," I smugly reply.
Roxanne feels very frustrated that she can't find an appropriate riposte to my banter and turns towards the trunk.
"I used these when I was studying at the Holy Academy," she remarks to force the conversation to move on to something else.
I immediately switch gears and gently ask, "Do you want to visit it?"
"Perhaps…"
"Even if it reminds you of Mithra, it might do you some good," Hana wisely advises.
Roxanne smiles bitterly and nods as she opens both trunks. One is partially filled with paper and notes while the other contains a variety of [Alchemy] supplies. The fact that nothing is dusty or stained tells us that this room is likely cleaned fairly often.
"My old notes about Potion and [Poison Making]," she remarks, a bit disheartened at the reminder of the dream she abandoned.
"Your research for the anti-venom?" Hana asks, and we both stop behind her, then look down over her shoulder.
"Yes…" Whispers softly, then she reads her notes and frowns. "I always sent a copy to the Student Liaison, but she never once told me how horribly confusing my reports were."
I chuckle and point out, "You were young then-"
"Still am," she sharply interrupts.
"Still are," I immediately agree with a nod. "But now, you know better."
She hums in thought and starts flipping through them. It seems like she was doing things through trial and error, methodically organizing and cataloging the results of each combination of ingredients.
The anti-venom for the Kazh-dom Ambusher, a dreadful and lethal monster, seems to require a dozen specific anti-venom compounds because of how it absolutely destroys every single cell of their victim's body through a wide variety of vectors of attack. It's like someone just merged all known venoms and created liquid death.
Considering that all the monsters in Death Valley, where the Kazh-dom appears, have a theme related to "death," my analogy doesn't seem to be far from the truth.
"Would you two like to come visit the Academy with me?" Roxanne shyly asks, her tail undulating gently in expectation.
"Love to," Hana answers for us both.
We just fool around a bit to comfort her until lunchtime, then we all gather in the dining hall. It has a bit of edginess to its architecture, giving it an austere charm. It's not exactly lavish as it seems that Sanaz's sense of style is quite restrained regarding wealth, possibly one of the reasons she's so good at making money, but she definitely has the succubus obsession with pornography.
Once we're all seated, the bitc-, I mean, Roxanne's stunningly milfy and seductive mother struts in. Her body definitely agrees with the tight black leather dress she's wearing, giving her the aura of a succubus dominatrix.
The Housekeeper stands behind her like a bodyguard, a mirror to how Jarn stands behind me while the toy golems on Ciel's and Lina's lap look deceptively harmless.
Servants pour in and set out the banquet, a mix of grotesque succubi cuisine with the more recognizable elven veggies and smoked meat, which is quite pleasing to us.
Their food is quite spicy, and they seem to regard food from the depths of the sea as delicacies, but it isn't too bad. It'd just take a lot of time to get used to if I were to live here.
"You do have a certain fascination with food that we don't share," Yunia retorts through [Bind] and looks towards Ciel, asking for support, but the lewd angel is trying her best to not get wet at the sight of the eldritch horrors. She'd be fine if I weren't teasing her with my deep, dark knowledge of hentai.
Yunia rolls her eyes, then Lina and Alissa give her their support as consolation.
The beginning of our meal is completely silent, but Behrouz strikes up a conversation about their trips to the north of Maoka and the Neverending Storm, which triggers the fantasy nerd in me.
His tone is solemn with a hint of excitement as he retells his experiences, using his fairly high "Charisma" to enhance the wonder of his words, "The Storm is infinite, and it's hard to grasp what that really means until you're very close to it. The sheer distance cloaks your view in a blue veil that slowly dissipates as you get closer, so the first thing you notice is a slight waving in the sky, making it seem like the sea has turned vertical.
"Then the clouds start to take shape, and it looks like you're approaching a mountain-sized storm wall, making you feel like you're nothing more than a mere ant before your doom. After that, you start to notice the lightning strikes and the jets of lava, which are wild, unpredictable, and inconceivably huge, which clearly shows you that it isn't just a raging storm, but a raging calamity.
"Then it slowly expands to fill your view, becoming higher, and higher, and higher, and higher… to the point that you're not just an ant now, but a tiny speck of dust before the remains of the war of the divines. Only the most powerful of mages might be able to cause any degree of significant change to it, but it'd be only temporary, because the Storm never stops, never abates, never calms. It's Everlasting.
"The experience was so humbling that I even gained a point in 'Piety' for it as my respect for the Gods of Origin was renewed."
Lina's Trivia: Gods of Origin is what the demons call the Old Gods.
I hum in contentment and remark, "I'd love to see the Storm one day. Perhaps after we visit the capital and pay our respects to the Emperor."
He gives me a brief smile and adds, "The sheep-type Holy Lands have a wide variety of leisure cruise ships that sail close to the Storm, but I don't know if Avgi has something similar."
Oh, right. Poosh is from the north of Maoka.
"Oh, there are. I saw quite a lot of them when I visited Seemacht once," Hana chimes in.
Then Yunia takes Hana's hook to set the plan in motion, "The north is too far for us to use the excuse of 'building relations' to visit, so it'll have to be strictly a leisure trip."
"We could always try to sell some of my knowledge," I innocently suggest.
"Oh?" Behrouz hums inquisitively.
"I'm not Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge just for show," I explain with a subtly smug smile.
"What knowledge does someone as young as you have that's worthy of being sold?" Sanaz falls for the bait, her tone rather cold and detached.
I point to the golems standing behind us, "I'm a Golemancer, a Summoner, and a Scholar. I have a lot to sell."
"How…" She mumbles, then stops herself and frowns as she rests her head on her hand, her silky hair falling like drapes to frame her gorgeous face. "What would you wish to trade for the knowledge of how to build these golems?"
I politely explain, letting my [Acting] do its job in keeping me calm, "[Golemancy] is a very complex skill, but it also has tremendous potential. Think of golems as smart and permanent elemental summons."
"Sounds like a good source of workers," she remarks, a bit of interest showing in her tone.
Through Alissa's eyes, I see the Housekeeper subtly purse her lips as her body twitches. It seems that we've succeeded in impressing her.
I slowly nod as I explain, "Yes, but they hold a copy of the memories of their creator, so I still have to fix that issue with their creation."
Sanaz narrows her eyes. "And you look like someone who has a lot of secrets."
I gently smile. "Exactly."
She scoffs and shakes her head as she relents, "But anyway, I don't think I have anything I could trade for a skill of that potential. I only have money."
"You're still Roxanne's mother, her family."
She slowly straightens her back and folds her arms in her lap, now back to looking serious and stern. "What are you implying?"
Roxanne immediately takes over, keeping herself calm and collected as she announces, "I wish to make peace with you, Mother, and return some of what you've given to me."
The two stare at each other while the entire table goes perfectly silent, with Sanaz filled with suspicion and bitterness while Roxanne remains hurt and sorrowful inside.
"My love," Behrouz's gentle whisper seems to magically diffuse some of the coldness in the air, and Sanaz turns to him, her gaze respectful and expectant. "Let us be a family again."
The stern woman clenches her jaw and seems to waver, her lip trembling as she holds back her rising anger. "Fine," she begrudgingly agrees. "Perhaps I was… too harsh."
Understatement of the year!
"I ran because I wanted to be free," Roxanne suddenly confesses, the desire to lay it all bare taking over for a moment.
Sanaz restrains herself from shouting at her and points out through gritted teeth, "You could've been 'free' as a Holy person."
Roxanne gently shakes her head. "I wouldn't have, and you know it."
The strict mother seems like she wants to argue about it, but with a glance at Behrouz, she bottles it up again.
"We've all done things we regret, but it's been years, so perhaps we shouldn't poke at scarred wounds," the sympathetic mediator strikes again. His words seem to have a strong effect on the two estranged women, so I let him push this angle without forcing more admissions of mea culpa from Sanaz.
"We have a wide extent of knowledge that we could teach Taveez once she's older," Ciel continues cordially, but she receives a frown in response from Sanaz, so my angel lets her stern side show as she gives Sanaz a short but sharp reprimand, "Let's give your younger daughter more room to choose than you gave to Roxanne."
The little girl turns her innocent eyes of wonder towards Ciel, ignoring all the tension in the air.
But Sanaz doesn't flinch at the jab and counters, "How is that better than letting her enter Xane's Holy Academy?"
I coldly chip in, letting a bit of condescension taint my tone, "You know why, Sanaz. We have three Blessed people in our family along with two Interventions in our favor."
Her tail stiffens, and she hesitates for a second as her defenses crack, then she sternly points out, "From the Humanoid Gods."
I laugh softly and let my tail sway in amusement. "I'm a twenty-years-old Lord who has already achieved this much. Where do you think the Ryder clan will be when Taveez is ten?"
She hesitates for a second again, then narrows her eyes skeptically. "I don't bet on promises."
"We're not asking you to bet," Ciel comes in again to soften the blow.
"Then what are you asking, really?" Sanaz asks in the same tone.
"That you be kinder to my sister than you've been to me, and that you become open to letting her come study with us once she's old enough," Roxanne succinctly explains, a large amount of satisfaction filling her heart as she successfully challenges her mother's will.
A silence settles over the table once more as everyone stares at Sanaz, and even the Housekeeper seems eager to hear her answer.
"And what if I refuse?" She slowly replies, putting up one last line of defense.
Roxanne lowers her tail slightly as a sign of aggression, as if it were ready to lash out, then she lets her memories of hardship fuel her grim determination and taint her tone as she declares, "I won't abandon my sister, and you know that having money isn't enough to go against Lords."
The mood becomes tense again as Roxanne delivers our ultimatum.
Sanaz breaks the stare off first and looks down, actually looking a bit hurt. "You speak as if I was a monster," she quietly replies as the Housekeeper glares at Roxanne in fury.
With everyone encouraging her through [Bind], Roxanne delivers the final blow, "You're just too strict, too demanding, Mother. Let us help you achieve what you want, to pay you back for what you've given me."
I don't like using this trope, but it fits this situation.
After a few seconds without getting a reply, she double taps, "We're still family, so let's find a way to work together."
Sanaz sighs in irritation, then raises her head and gives in with grace, "Hmph. I'll accept your proposal to judge if your clan can provide an education worthy of Taveez."
"[I'm going to live with my sister?]" Tavi shyly asks.
Sanaz glances at her and nods. "[Perhaps]."
"Then let us celebrate!" I pompously exclaim, and the moment I'd never thought possible has finally come, the dream is about to become real. I turn to Sanaz and activate [Sexual Charm] as I suggest, "How about a Sexual Celebration between you, Roxanne, and me?"