“The food won’t run, but time will. I still have to train after this, sister.”
“...”
Looking at his messy appearance, Aurelia could only applaud that despite his voracious eating habits, there was not one stain on his shirt.
“I wonder if you’ll even be able to get married at this rate, Igor.”
“Heh? Never. Marriage is a waste of time.”
Clang! Clang!
Dropping her fork and knife, Aurelia couldn’t believe her ears.
“What?”
.
|DxD|
.
For the longest of times, Igor’s pursuit had always been strength. Other things were not worth mentioning. When he transmigrated to this world, he had resolved himself to push aside distractions and dedicate himself to the road to power.
As the decades passed in the time chamber, that never changed. With his strength constantly increasing, his resolve remained stalwart. But, on that fateful day when he met Akeno, he never thought that by meeting her, he would end up growing attached to her, Shuri, and Baraquiel.
Even when he returned to the time chamber after dropping that massive sphere on Baraquiel, he would find himself thinking about them. The people he treated as a distraction when he first met them gradually became those he considered family. Over time, he continued to meet more and more people, and each of those people became precious to him.
Asia, the little sister he loved with all of his heart without a single doubt. For Asia, he would do anything to ensure she remained happy. Vasco, the man he admired from the bottom of his heart. Regardless of how strong he got, he would always respect the exorcist who had been his inspiration. Sun Wukong, his teacher that he owed a great deal. Without his teachings, he may have been too late to save Akeno.
And now recently, Aurelia. Igor wasn’t quite sure what to think of the silverette. Having spent time with her for two years, she was by far the person she had spent the longest time with besides the old sage.
With her being six decades his senior, it showed in her actions. Despite calling her “sister”, it would be more accurate to say she was like a grandmother of sorts. It was embarrassing for him to admit, but having her around was of great help. Just her presence had transformed the time chamber from a place he only treated as a fridge and a place of training into a home.
He genuinely cared for the silverette not only because she was kin, but also because he respected and cherished her. He had not experienced the pain of having his family slaughtered in front of him like she did. In place of where she could’ve killed herself in a hopeless situation, she continued living and plotted vengeance on those who killed her family. If that wasn’t worthy of respect, nothing was.
It was why the blonde had no regret forming these attachments, despite being adamant in not having any initially. Knowing all these people and knowing he could trust them just gave him all the more reason to be stronger.
But if there was one thing, ONE thing he would never compromise on, was having a romantic partner.
“I don’t want to get married because, sister, marriage will only affect my speed to becoming stronger.”
“...”
The table became quiet at Igor’s revelation. Aurelia didn’t expect that Igor would push aside any notion of marriage. And judging by how adamant he was in that statement, this was an ideal that had cemented itself into his brain.
“But Igor, you can’t do that. If you don’t marry, then...our race will…”
Excluding herself from the equation, there was still Asia. Although the little blonde was a half-blood, there was a high chance that Igor’s genes would allow him to sire a pure-blooded Aryan.
“Sister. Don’t we have your research? Can’t we use that to revive our race?”
“That’s not a full-proof plan, Igor. I’ve only managed to understand the first seal so far. Judging by the complexity of the second seal, it will no doubt take me atleast twenty years to understand it and another thirty years to fully understand it. For the third seal, half-a-millennium at minimum. And that is assuming I have a team of experts helping me. If I am alone, I will have to spend the next thousand years unraveling it.”
Stolen story; please report.
The blonde widened his eyes at the revelation.
“It’s that hard?”
Aurelia couldn’t help but chuckle at his confusion.
“Igor. This was a seal designed by the All-Father himself. It took our ancestors dozens of generations just to unravel the first seal. The only reason it took me two years to master the first seal is because I had their memories as guidance. But even with their memories, it will take me a long time to comprehend the second and third seal. Even if you allow me to use the time chamber, it will still take me over a century to comprehend everything.”
She then released a sigh as the weight of everything settled.
“Even if I comprehend the seals, it will still need to be tested out and modifications will need to be made, Igor. God’s seals aren’t simple and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that after thousands of years, the seal matrices may have changed or evolved. If we put everything into perspective, perhaps it will take me five hundred years to truly unravel everything, or five millenniums without your time chamber.”
The silverette was exaggerating just slightly, but she wasn’t completely off the mark. With her “current” level, it will indeed take her thousands of years to completely solve the first three curse seals god placed on humanity. But the blonde didn’t need to know that.
Her concern right now was that he had to sire heirs. Even if he took one wife, it would set the prejudice for a new royal lineage, the lineage of Dimori. With the Drachenburgs gone, a new royal lineage would be needed and Igor had every qualification to begin one.
“You have every right to sire a new lineage, Igor. Your clan, the clan of Dimori, is descended from the keepers of fate in a period long before humanity was cursed. Despite your name having almost faded from existence, just your ancestry and historical significance alone places you on the same pedestal as my family. And combined with your strength and future potential, you possess all the qualifications needed to start a new royal family.”
“...”
Igor was…lost. He was completely, utterly, lost.
“Whaa…?”
He couldn’t understand how things involved from having a wife to starting a new lineage. A part of him wondered if Aurelia heard his refusal earlier. This talk of royalty, history and whatnot overloaded his brain.
“Wait wait wait, sister. I don’t get what you are saying. Why do I need to marry? Can’t you marry someone?”
Aurelia was quick to shake her head.
“No. It has to be you. Only your genes are strong enough to sire pure-blooded Aryans from a half-blood. Your ki combined with the divinity you possess can prevent the curse seal from passing onto your offspring.”
“Huh.”
The blonde considered things from Aurelia’s point of view. She was right, but…
“Can’t we talk about this in a hundred years or two?”
Externally, he appeared calm. But internally, he was complaining.
[Marriage? Royalty? Children? I haven’t even graduated from being a teenager. Forget children, I can’t even take care of myself. And you want ME to sire a lineage?! ME?! I just want to train in peace.]
-“I just want to train in peace…?!”
“...”
Aurelia blinked once. Then blinked again. She was surprised by how difficult the blonde was, but it was in her expectations. Although this talk came sooner than she planned, she would plant a seed within him.
“I understand your desire to train, Igor. But this should be done as soon as possible, preferably within the next decade. With your strength firmly in the realm of supreme class, few will dare to challenge you. And as for your…training time, I and your wife will take care of any children you manage to sire so you will have no problems. That way, your time won’t be wasted and you’ll only need to occasionally sire a new child once a year. As for everything else, I will handle it. You will only need to name the child before you can go back to your training.”
“...”
Igor silently processed all of this before vehemently waving his hands.
“Nope. That won’t do, sister.”
“But Igor-”
“Please listen to me, sister. I’m not against having a partner. I’m against having a partner while being weak.”
His mind travelled back to the words Sun Wukong said to him all those years ago.
…
“Kid. Here’s a word of advice. Do not get a lover.”
“???”
“Listen to me before you interrupt. While I do understand your ideals, I am someone who has family, kid. Everyone that lives on Flower-Fruit Mountain is my family. If they carried your ideals, I fear how many funerals I would have to hold every year. That is why I sincerely hope that no matter what, you will not bind yourself to a woman, at least not while you’re this weak. Because should you do so and you end up dying…”
…
This had happened after he had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Indra. At the time, he had treated those words more or less as air. But now, he understood them.
“I don’t know if you know, sister, but there are many, many people stronger than me. There are gods that are stronger than me. There are possibly even people I don’t know of who are stronger than me. I don’t want to even entertain the thought of having a family when I haven’t reached the peak. I don’t want to risk it, especially considering what we are, sister.”
Standing up from the table, he wiped his hands as he looked at Aurelia.
“I don’t want to have a family, only for them to be attacked when I’m not there. I hope you understand, sister.”
Without waiting for Aurelia’s response, he walked out of the kitchen.
Gu Gu Gu Gu Gu Gu Gu
[There’s no way I’ll even think about having my own family, not when I’m still weak.]
The incident with the Himejima had only served to reinforce this ideal. Supreme class or not, there were many supreme class entities. He had already seen hundreds in the Heavenly Realm alone. He didn’t want to think how many currently existed on Earth.
With his status as an Aryan, he was going to be attacked at some point in his life. The last thing he wanted was for his family to be killed because of that.
[If I’m ever going to entertain the thought of having a family, I’ll only have the qualifications to think about it when I’m as strong as Lord Shiva.]