Wives Everywhere, Too!

Lady Calisneia's abode, in the empty black space of seemingly unending darkness.

Step, step, step, step. Heian Ciemnosc walked seriously through the road ahead, his gaze fixated in the darkness as he remembered tomorrow's appointment with Milyy and Elena to discover more about his strange to cultivate with others. As he walked in, he sensed his Master's presence ahead. Thus, he looked up and witnessed one of the kitchens he already knew existed within this empty black place and his Master currently slowly stirring a large cooking pot.

“Master?” Heian Ciemnosc asked his Master, walking to the kitchen and standing behind the kitchen island. He didn’t know what it was with cultivators liking having one such table no matter how advanced in the path of cultivation of the world his close ones were in. But he was glad they had such a custom. Although he wasn’t aware if it was only the Crimsonbreaking Faction and the Wrath Nihility Academy that had these traditions or the entire world.

“Heian… Ciemnosc… So your Power Energy is called ‘dark’ Power Energy, hm? Is there anything in you or on you that isn’t about a concept or color?” Lady Calisneia wore a long cloak with her backside covered from head to toe and perhaps her front if she wasn’t facing the same way as Heian Ciemnosc. She spoke softly and calmly. But there was a hint of opposing him under her every word.

“Oh, um… Master?” Heian Ciemnosc didn’t know how to respond. If to address how she spoke to him, the reason behind his names, or the fixation with that one word. The latter 2 were closely related anyway, so he planned to elaborate on them. But before he could, his Master spoke again, this time with her usual calm, collected, and detached tone.

“It wasn’t an attempt to scold you, Heian Ciemnosc. You also don’t have to answer any of that,” she said. She seemed to slightly turn her head back to address him again the same way as when she taught him before returning to face ahead and slowly stirring the cooking pot. Her back looked lonely, but she said nothing else, leaving Heian Ciemnosc to his thoughts as he could only look at his Master from across the kitchen island.

“I… it was my Mother named me Ciemnosc. I kept that name until the day my wife brought me… away from her natal home.” Heian Ciemnosc said, pulling a stool from within the kitchen table as a trapdoor opened and sat on it. Lady Calisneia continued stirring the cooking pot, though no smell came from it still, but she had fallen silent. “...”

“It was the name with which I ended up suffering quite a lot of things, from unfolded brutality to betrayal and greed… as well as lust.” Heian Ciemnosc placed his forearms on the kitchen table, his face slowly facing its surface as his darkest eyes dulled a little. He continued as his Master was preparing the late dinner. He also couldn’t feel or see Milyy anywhere, but he could tell she might be listening. “I remember everything my Mother did for me, from picking me up from a rain, that night where the stars disappeared forever from that sky… to reassuring me as she faded.”

“And even my Sister… sniff,” Heian Ciemnosc shook his head abruptly but stopped, his nose wriggling along his lips before continuing. “Even though I don’t know where she went after she chased her dreams, her path… I can even tell she wasn’t in the Blackotia Kingdom when I… devoured it all and more.”

Walaa~... gurgle…

“...” Lady Calisneia’s silence wasn’t unfolded, however. Her right hand began to slow the already slow-stirring motion, with the cooking pot already emanating a stomach-filling smell. Her head was ever-so-slightly turned to the left as Heian Ciemnosc continued speaking.

“When I was, at last, away from that place and everything that happened there… I could finally start what I didn’t even really commence in my Mother’s name, for her, and because of my appreciation and love for her and everything she did for me… Taught me and told me how to be and what not to become. But I also learned the world and myself as I explored that world, and the world, step by step.”

“I found it easy that… who I was… didn’t conflict with what I wanted, what Mommy wanted.” Heian Ciemnosc’s head hung low, his forearms sprawled on the kitchen island. “So, as I lived on, without Sister nor a home to return, I just had to keep going. But all I did… everywhere I went, for nothing… They… wanted to eat me!”

Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes were seen as he lifted his face, and even without any Spirit Sense or direct sight, Lady Calisneia could see the bottomless, darkest eyes with an endless fury! He wasn’t depressed nor nostalgic… he was never feeling down about his past, only cruel and blatant wrath!!!

“...” Lady Calisneia’s right hand stopped stirring. The cooking pot’s gurgling noises increased as more bubbles appeared, and the metallic structure began shaking ever-so-slightly. But her head turned leftwards a little more until she saw Heian Ciemnosc on the other side of the kitchen island with his head hung low again. The hands that had just formed tight fists had relaxed, and he seemed powerless. So lonely and misunderstood.

Tap, tap… gurgle gurgle… Heian Ciemnosc felt his cheeks touched by fair hands. His face was lifted without a choice to behave like an angered child. Her movements were also not forceful, and he felt the owner of those hands’ gentleness as he looked at his Master’s aged face.

“Heian Ciemnosc…” Her gentleness was no longer only Milyy’s now shared with him as she looked into each of his darkest eyes with her pale-dull golden irises and pupils. Her crooked and tattered lips, by the passage of time, moved as he looked up at her with his eyes fully open. “Darkness was the only remaining when you were born in the sky. It was your given name by your Mother. It is the last of what became of the Blackotia Kingdom. And is where nobody easily dares to step into knowing the difficulties… But here you are, trying still.”

“Since you’ve seen and known life, I can trust you with your own life. I know one day, when I’m gone, you’ll find the answer to many things. Some which not even I can understand… Many things will become clearer, and I hope you find your way back to your origins before anything else. You are not meant to be lonely, even if you become into the worst of monsters, so you don’t have to worry about loneliness… You are my disciple, and I will help you until my bones and soul rest at ease, my legacy.”

“Master…” Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes trembled as he looked up at the wrinkled, warm, and gentle face. That face also contained the last trace of worry his Master had had ever since he met her, seemingly… making peace with something. Not knowing what to say, Heian Ciemnosc became silly, so he could only blurt out without much confidence. “Err, why is Master cooking again? I thought Master would let me do everything until I become a good chef.”

“Hush, now. I was once a wife, don’t you know that already?” Lady Calisneia let go of his face and said with a collected voice tone, no longer with emotions surging from her heart and exploding in her mind. Heian Ciemnosc suddenly felt glad seeing his Master like this, and he clamored out before asking her. “Master, you’re amazing!”

“Uhm, Master… From what I understood, your married life was solely for producing a legacy’s sake, right?” Heian Ciemnosc respectfully lowered his head a little, already feeling more at ease with his Master and somewhat better connected with her. He felt their relationship had advanced to not only being taught what she knew and what he needed to learn first.

“Yes, it was so… But even then… that didn’t seem to work. But in the end, even that and the concept born along were all a complete contradiction and disappointment…” Lady Calisneia looked up, her back facing Heian Ciemnosc as her words turned distant. She was far away from this empty black space. “My children died fast, not even withstanding the necessary test of time, so focused on making more knowledge and learning concepts for that ‘Academy’s’ sake.”

“Later generations were just chickens living on their eggs. None of them could at least recognize the natural grand array formation and replicate it,” Lady Calisneia said. But she didn’t sigh or show sadness in any way. The long tree of one’s bloodline stops being important once there are too many, and disappointing results ensue. Heian Ciemnosc was peaceful as he looked at his Master.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Lady Calisneia looked back down at the cooking pot. She found herself, once again, in this empty black space without much choice other than to continue to live on. She made plates, small bowls, kitchenware, and chopsticks appear from nowhere before filling them with the broth she was making. When she turned around, she said as her calm, collected, and ultimately calculative pale-dull golden eyes with dimmed-out light looked at him from above.

“But from such failure, and at such a time, I could at least find someone to place my whole legacy on his shoulders. Heian Ciemnosc,” Lady Calisneia said as she placed a large plate filled with broth, the small bowl with roasted and raw meat with the chopsticks, and a glass of fresh, cold, and delicious-looking water. Heian Ciemnosc downed the glass of water, of course, and then took many spoons from the broth. It was light green with a whitish perimeter that tasted soft and sweet but wasn’t candy-ish.

“Hufgah- siiiigh~,” exhaling with emotion, Heian Ciemnosc used the chopsticks to try the different types of meat. After slightly tasting each, he grabbed some pieces and soaked them in the broth. Flavors mixed, and Heian Ciemnosc closed his eyes like a child as his cheeks were filled and his mouth slowly chewed with long and arduous movements. There wasn’t a problem with the. He just wanted to take forever until the food became paste - and no longer could it be enjoyable to chew on. It was so delicious!

“Mn, eat then.” Lady Calisneia blinked her eyes in appreciation and slowly nodded at her disciple, who then seemed to drown in her dish, nearly devouring it in just a few minutes.

After a slight while, Heian Ciemnosc looked at his Master and asked her with all the seriousness in the world, “So, Master. When are we starting the chef’s lessons, too?”

“... You want to be a good husband?” His Master surprised him with this rhetorical question. Heian Ciemnosc looked at his Master’s raised left eyebrow and slowly nodded. She looked up at the empty black ceiling, and as they talked, Heian Ciemnosc had finished everything up, so she picked the wares to fill it all up again. “Then you must promise me a few things, my disciple. Starting with the matter of being a good husband…”

“Anything, Master!” Heian Ciemnosc said with enthusiasm. He could now duel Alyona. Thus, even if he didn’t win, he would have shown her his culinary advancements!

“Should anything happen to me, I want you to take care of my daughter,” Lady Calisneia said as she walked to the kitchen island with everything in her hands filled with broth, meat, or water again. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes, on the other hand, became as wide as saucers. Why did it seem like he was picking up girls everywhere he went? Girls walking on the sidewalks on the road to their school must be careful, or monster Heian Ciemnosc might steal their mommies away.

“Master?!” Heian Ciemnosc was astounded and even ignored the yummy plates and glass of water placed before him. Lady Calisneia side glanced at her disciple with her right profile facing him as her eyes slightly narrowed, and she brought her hands before her sternum to flick her nails. “You must immediately marry her. I won’t be to protect her, and the Great Sage’s Change won’t have his customs forgotten so rapidly.”

“I have talked to the Headmaster a little and arranged a few things. You will have the Headmaster’s approval,” said Lady Calisneia as she glared harshly at Heian Ciemnosc. He immediately became damn serious. Looking at his Master correspondingly and waited to hear more. He expected his Master would have made some connections and that to protect Milyy, he would have to do more than only publicly marry her. But her subsequent words turned him into an idiot.

“...The Headmaster and Vice headmaster will support you, as will most Supervisors, half the Teachers, all Sub Teachers and Assistant Teachers.” Lady Calisneia spoke casually but also commandingly and calculatively.

‘Master… what kind of a talk you had with the Headmaster?! You’re virtually moving the entire Wrath Nihility Academy just to protect your daughter?!’ Heian Ciemnosc now understood the level his Master could reach to accomplish her goals and to further defend her closest kin, previously the only one for her.

Heian Ciemnosc had only seen in books, comics, and records what his Master’s capabilities when being in charge were. Turning idiots into geniuses at alchemy or tool-crafting, good-for-nothings into selfless and brave warriors for the Academy, and even always choosing the most talented students to receive a small gift of support from the Academy, which all ended with the Academy nurturing incredible Geniuses!

There were many more occasions, but only some were related to actual battling or a war-like state when the Academy fought outsiders or enemies from within. However, as he was thinking hard and wondering how she could do all this without batting an eye, her following words turned him into an embarrassed idiot.

“If possible, find a way to cure your infertility and seed her with your children. She is a lost species of Beast Race and one of the most enigmatic since the Lords’ organizations’ disappearance. Her bloodline must not be filthy, underdeveloped, or lost! Only my disciple could be the one to grant her the best evolutionary concept in the future.” Lady Calisneia crossed her arms. Her voice was detached and calculative, making Heian Ciemnosc doubt he was actually hearing those words coming out her mouth.

‘So… It isn’t just Milyy. Oh, so I am also one of the reasons you’re mobilizing virtually the whole Academy so we can marry? Oh, that’s sweet…’ Heian Ciemnosc could finally experience the main protagonist’s halo in an action, sci-fi movie where his romance would make the whole universe a better place without blemish as long as he and the female lead end together with a forceful but passionate kiss.

“Err, Master…” Heian Ciemnosc was still nonresponsive. He couldn’t just process to want to marry his almost-murderer in his Master’s name. They hadn’t even kissed or even touched after the initial incident. Why would they be okay with being husband and wife now? What if she wasn’t willing to let her husband have wives? And before she even entered his life in the first place? So many ifs…

“Mommyyy~!!”

“!!” - “!!” But at that time, Heian Ciemnosc and his Master’s eyes widened as Lady Calisneia’s pale-dull and dimmed-out golden eyes turned smaller and disproportionate to her face. Milyy entered the kitchen ‘room’ from behind Heian Ciemnosc, wearing pajamas, her arms raised in a ‘V’ shape. Her eyes semi-closed as she walked in with her nostrils sniffling like an addict to food.

“Woaah~, Mommy, I’ve just been cultivating and studying soooo hard the last few weeks. I didn’t even know you were cooking! Oh my, what a smell- heh? Oh! Heian Ciemnosc! Howdy~. Wow, it is indeed that! You’ve cooked it again, Mom~! You should’ve told me. You know how much I like it! Mooou!” Milyy walked to stand beside Heian Ciemnosc’s right when Lady Calisneia’s eyes became strict as she looked at her daughter.

“Don’t think I can’t smell a Second Step Cat-type Beast Race scent on my disciple’s body or that I didn’t smell my disciple’s aura on you after you returned with the Relic the Headmaster gave you. You are lucky it is not anyone else’s smell besides Little Conde’s disciple on you, or you’d be in great trouble. Now, get here and ready to eat, young lady.” Lady Calisneia said without parting her eyes, freezing her daughter on the spot as she hurled herself together and shrunk her body like a cat, knowing she had done wrong and felt guilty about it.

“Yes… Mother,” Milyy dropped her acts, and her sleepy face became wholly sober. She poutingly looked at Heian Ciemnosc pleadingly, but he didn’t let her have any of his plates. In response, he growled and hissed at him with an enchanting, terrifying face of her wrinkled nose, ferociously furrowed eyebrows, and small canines showing.

“Heian Ciemnosc,” at that moment, when he was just lifting his left eyebrow and about to tease her as they sometimes play together. Heian Ciemnosc heard his Master speak as Milyy became well-behaved like a pure kitten. He looked at his Master again and saw the same face she gave to her daughter. His mind went, ‘Uh oh.’

“Do you promise?” Lady Calisneia asked. This time, she was concise and quick, confusing Milyy and making her feel wronged… the poor and innocent kitty. Heian Ciemnosc ignored the pussy and looked at his Master. His eyes turned serious as he devotedly pledged, heavily nodding his head. “Disciple promises. I won’t disappoint Master, waste your efforts, and much less fall behind your legacy. That is my promise.”

Without being detailed, Heian Ciemnosc made Lady Calisneia feel relieved and at ease. She lovingly looked at Milyy, arousing some jealousy from Heian Ciemnosc, who had just been given a taste of her caringness. But she then looked at Heian Ciemnosc with equal tenderness, slightly different though, and he was eased up.

“Mnyaauuh, Mommy, me hungry!” With her spoiled behavior, Milyy ruined the moment, but she couldn’t hide the fact her cheeks blushed lovingly. Feeling her mother’s warmth and not knowing what they talked about, she went into kuudere mode and kept quiet. With her head low, she could still see sense Heian Ciemnosc looking at her with Spirit Sense and smelling the most diminutive movements of his body. Her recently cut short dark-dull orange hair was like ribbons fell from the back of her head and top towards the empty black floor.

Her mixed, colorful eyes and Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes met when she caught him looking at her cheek and hair. With a growl, she asked him, “What you lookin’ at? Like me or something?!”

“Nah,” Heian Ciemnosc responded. He slightly grinned and addressed her. This time, he was reserved and somewhat quiet. “But why? Should I?”

“Why should you?” Milyy tried gnawing at him with words, grinning after ‘successfully’ getting up to here in a word-battle. But his subsequent words made Milyy widen her eyes, and her breath slowed down like she was up to her neck with the densest water tightly compressing her body.

“Well, what happens if I start liking you, then?” His voice was calm, quiet, and soft. Terrifyingly seductive, charismatic, and soulstealer.

Milyy: “...”

…