Chapter 68: Motherly Scolding
The following day, I returned to the Underworld. As I promised, I'd be spending the next two weeks at the Belphegor Estate with Roygun and Thora in tow.
I'd be lying if I said the notion of the old man greeting me with a surprise visit didn't frighten me, even if I had Sirzechs' and Serafall's protection. However, this is Extra Demon territory, so I think the odds of that happening are pretty slim.
Eventually, the estate will be moved into the government's territory, but Roygun's still searching for a suitable location with Sirzechs. And once the matter's decided, it'll still take some time for all the construction work to be done.
"Darling, is something wrong?" Roygun observed my face as we strolled through the estate's front yard, where all her cherry blossom trees were situated.
I shook my head. "No, I just need some time to get used to the Underworld's air again."
"Are you sure?" Thora shared her sentiment. "Young Lord, you look a little pale."
"Yeah, I'm good." I smiled reassuringly.
Honestly, I'm feeling a little 'moonsick.' The human world's moon always gave me this inexplicable, deeply comforting sense of ease. I still don't fully understand it, but now that I'm back in the Underworld, I can feel something within me longing to bask in its light again.
Obviously, it's related to that 'child of the moon' thing my dragon keeps mentioning, but refuses to elaborate on whenever I ask him to.
Which is pretty damn infuriating. If you're not going to spill the beans, why even bring it up at all?
We continued our stroll, my eyes habitually examining each of the trees planted around the estate's walkway as I took note of their condition.
"It looks like you've hired some new gardeners," I said in an approving tone.
Compared to the last time I was here, the condition of her trees had drastically improved. I mean, it wasn't terrible before, but based on the coloration of the petals and salubrity of the Ki coursing through their roots, the difference is clear as day.
Actually, I don't think it'd be a stretch to say they're in peak condition. They're almost as healthy as some of the plants in Martha's garden. If they're maintained like this long enough, they might actually reach that level.
Sirzechs must've hooked her up with some Sitri fertilizer, that stuff works like magic.
"What are you talking about? I haven't changed my staff," she narrowed her eyes, looking closely at the trees. "Huh. They didn't look that vibrant yesterday, strange."
I blinked, reciprocating her confusion.
She didn't change anything? How can that be?
///
Roygun scratched her cheek, exchanging a glance with Thora as they watched the botany-loving Buné walk up to one of the trees.
They shrugged, deciding to follow him and possibly figure out the reason behind the miraculous transformation of Roygun's treasured cherry blossoms.
'Odd,' Alduin clasped his hands behind his back, looking the tree up and down. 'The soil doesn't seem any different from before, and it doesn't seem like the tree's water intake or the sunlight it's been receiving has changed either. Yet, its condition appears to have improved tenfold. How's that possible?'
With piqued intrigue, he pressed his palm against the tree's bark. By allowing its Ki to resonate with his own, he'd be able to get an in-depth understanding of its condition.
At his level of Senjutsu mastery, reading the aura of a living creature or plant didn't just tell him how healthy it was, it could tell him the factors contributing to their health, or lack of it.
'Oh?' He stroked his chin. 'Someone artificially improved its condition with their Ki?'
Using Ki to enhance a plant's vitality was significantly more challenging than doing so for a person.
Ki could be harnessed in two forms.
Spiritual energy and natural energy.
Anything with a pulse contained a certain degree of spiritual energy, which is why a Senjutsu practitioner just had to transmit their Ki to their recipient to accelerate their regeneration. Of course, the more experienced the practitioner, the more efficient and potent the healing process would be, and vice versa.
You couldn't do that for plants.
They thrived off natural energy, filling them with spiritual energy would either have no effect on them or cause them to wither and rot if the ratio of spiritual energy in the plant exceeded that of natural energy.
It was basically like scooping a fish out of the ocean, throwing it on land, and expecting it to learn to breathe before it died.
A pointless endeavor.
You needed to feed it natural energy, however, you couldn't simply convert spiritual energy into natural energy. You had to absorb it from the atmosphere, and the rate and quantity that you could absorb varied from place to place.
For example, the density of natural energy in the Underworld was barely even a tenth of what it was in a Sage Realm like Ryuichi Cave, whereas the human world's density was about a fifth of a Sage Realm's.
The process of absorbing natural energy is extremely risky because of how easy it is for one's spiritual energy to become 'contaminated.'
Natural energy and spiritual energy weren't supposed to blend—period. They mixed like oil and water. When you channel natural energy, you need to constantly expel it into your target.
Under no circumstances were you to let it remain in your body, if even the slightest residual speck of natural energy mixed with your spiritual energy, you'd experience all sorts of horrifying mutations.
Your skin might start turning into wood. Mushrooms could sprout out of your body. Vines could replace your veins. Your eyes could fall out and turn into saplings. The list went on and on.
Unless you were somehow able to control and eliminate the contamination in time, you were guaranteed to experience a harrowing, grotesque death.
Typically, the best way to deal with it was to cut off the body part where the initial contamination had begun. Of course, this is assuming it began in a body part someone could afford to sever.
The only other way was to have immediate access to someone whose mastery of natural energy manipulation was good enough to expel the contamination for you.
The only people who fit that criteria were the handful of practitioners bestowed with the title of 'Sage', or someone who had ascended to Buddhahood and could interact with the very laws of Ki itself.
Granted, the risk of contamination correlated to the application of natural energy. Alduin only used natural energy to maintain the health of the plants in his greenhouse and backyard, and had learned to do so under Martha's guidance. The risk of him being contaminated was virtually nonexistent.
However, attempting to use it for combat purposes was way out of his league. He was nowhere near that level of mastery.
'This is seriously impressive, whoever did this has near-perfect control over natural energy.' Alduin took a step back, thoroughly taken aback by the tree's condition. The nurturing it had received was far better than anything even he could produce at his current level.
'And it's not just this one,' he looked around, quickly realizing that each and every cherry blossom in the estate had received the same treatment.
"Alduin?" Sensing that her fiancé's ruminations had come to an end, Roygun decided to call out to him.
"Was this Halibel's work?"
"Doubt it, I don't really understand very much about Senjutsu as you two do, but from what I know, Halibel's main expertise lies in manipulating Youki rather than regular Ki. That's harmful to plants, isn't it?" She scratched her cheek, not entirely confident in her words.
"Yes, Youki is a toxic form of Ki. Regular Ki wouldn't help your trees either, he'd need to be an expert in natural energy manipulation." When Alduin first encountered the wolfman, he failed to pick up on even the slightest hint of natural energy emanating from him.
Then again, it was highly possible he just missed it.
Halibel was a Shinobi after all, concealment was his forte.
'How bizarre, I can tell the density of the Underworld's natural energy hasn't changed. So why would something like this occur out of the blu—'
A chill crawled down his spine.
Roygun and Thora felt a gust of wind swish at them, causing their hair to sway with the passing breeze for a moment and nothing more.
Neither of them felt nor sensed anything of note.
It was just a bit of wind.
Alduin, on the other hand, had a completely different reaction.
He looked horrified.
His face whitened, drained of all color. Cold sweat perspired all over his face. His teeth clenched, and his face tightened as if he had just been plunged into the Arctic Sea. His eyes frantically darted from side to side, not a shred of composure to be found on his usually calm figure.
'SHIT.'
"...Darling? …What's the matter?" Roygun hesitated, deeply perturbed by his sudden change in demeanor.
He gulped, stammering to get the words out of his mouth.
"Roygun… Thora… could you two wait here for a moment? There's… something I need to do real quick." It was clear he wanted to say more, but wasn't sure whether it'd be wise to do so.
Roygun knitted her brows.
"What for? Is there something wrong with the trees?" Roygun's initial assumption was that Alduin had picked up on some kind of danger, but the Satan-Class Devil couldn't detect a thing.
"N-no… the trees are fine."
"Young Lord?" Like Roygun, Thora wasn't a fan of his hesitation.
Alduin looked at her, and after a few seconds of deliberation, came up with a response.
"It wasn't Halibel."
"Halibel? Young Lord, what are you trying to—"
It clicked.
Though not to the same degree, Thora went stiff, quickly realizing why Alduin seemed so petrified.
She tugged on Roygun's sleeve.
"Lady Roygun, I think it's best we give him a moment."
She scoffed. "Yeah, that's not going to work on me. Something's clearly bothering my darling, and it's my right to know what."
Thora pressed her lips together. She looked at Alduin, experiencing a rare moment where she wasn't sure what to do.
Instead of speaking, he decided to silently mouth a word at her.
"Angry."
If she weren't a Dhampir, her face would've paled just like his.
"Lady Roygun," she spoke with heightened urgency. "We'll only be causing him more trouble if we follow, I really think it's best—"
"With all due respect," Roygun interrupted with a harsh scowl. "This is my estate, if something's disturbing my fiancé here, it's only logical that I deal with it."
She faced Alduin, making it crystal clear that she wouldn't budge.
"Now either tell me what's wrong, or you and I can have a staring contest all day until you do."
Alduin clenched his fists, breathing a deep, frustrated exhale.
'Fuck, I don't think this is going to end well for me either way, so I might as well just say it.'
"My mother's here."
Another gust of wind followed, and while Roygun and Thora still didn't feel a thing, Alduin had two words transmitted directly through his ear canals.
"Come here."
"Roygun, I really have to go. Just… wait here for me, alright? I'll be back soon."
He turned around, preparing to dash off into the distance.
"Don't give me that!" Roygun snarled, gripping his shoulder and holding him in place. "So what if your mother's here? I don't know why she's in my estate unannounced, but I was planning on meeting her soon anyway. It's about time I got to know my mother-in-law, don't you think?"
Alduin gritted his teeth.
'Woman, I love that you're worried about me but please try to take a hint! Now isn't the time!'
"Sorry, but I really don't think she's in the mood to be introduced to her daughter-in-law…"
"Why not? She traveled all the way over to Extra Demon territory for a reason, didn't she?" Unconvinced, Roygun raised one brow.
"She did," he nodded, letting out a self-deprecatory chuckle. "But you're not a part of that reason, and believe me, that's a good thing."
Her frown deepened. She didn't understand why the mere presence of his mother was putting her fiancé under so much duress, but she certainly didn't like it.
"You're acting weird darling… it's almost like you think she's about to murder you or something…"
'Not a bad guess.'
Alduin groaned. He knew the more he delayed things, the worse his mother's mood would become.
"We can continue this conversation later, but right now, I really need to bounce."
'Besides, I've got some pent-up anger to throw her way as well.'
Roygun remained hesitant to let go, but the look Alduin and Thora were giving her convinced the ranker that she truly was only making things worse by holding him back.
"Alright…"
///
Alduin rushed off into the distance, headed in the direction of his mother's transmission.
He wasn't sure why, but he could tell his mother was angry.
No, that was an understatement—she was outright furious. It was obvious by her tone.
And that terrified him all the way down to his very core. Sure, he had experienced his mother's dissatisfaction thousands upon thousands of times, and it didn't get any easier to deal with whenever he was on its receiving end.
But this was different.
This wasn't just dissatisfaction.
This was genuine outrage.
"Things never make sense with you, do they?" He muttered under his breath as he made a beeline through the forestry surrounding his fiancée's abode, detecting his mother's presence about half a kilometer away from his current position. A distance he could effortlessly cover in a few seconds.
'I'm the one who should be pissed out of my fucking mind after what you did to my student, but somehow, it looks like it's going to be the other way around.'
Second to the dread he was experiencing was his confusion.
What possible reason could she have to be angry? He had yet to even hunt down and slaughter the mutt she had sent to threaten his student in the first place.
'Maybe I'm not the cause of her anger? And she's just venting?'
He shook his head.
'No, I'm clearly the target of her acrimony. I can feel it through the Ki she's expelling.'
Of course, the only reason Alduin could detect her Ki was that she was letting it leak on purpose, probably to set the tone for whatever it was she wanted to talk to him about.
Alduin continued to traverse through the foliage, the wind carrying his feet until he stumbled upon a man-made, circular clearing, roughly five meters in diameter.
There was little to be seen, save for a chair positioned in the center of the clearing, illuminated by the Underworld's purple hue.
It looked to be composed of a multitude of thick, trunk-like roots. The likes of which he was a far cry away from being able to slash or incinerate, even with the help of Dragonification.
The chair's back was facing him, and peaking over its height was a head of luscious, long, verdant-colored hair that draped over either side of its aprons.
Alduin gulped. He put his palm over his chest, attempting to steady his racing heartbeat.
'If I survive this, I'll have no trouble looking Kokabiel dead in the eyes.' He quipped inwardly, hoping to suppress some of his fear with a tinge of dry humor.
"I've called for you twice already," a dispassionate voice called out to him.
Alduin watched as the head of the woman sat on the chair tilted ever so slightly, to the point where he could see part of her cheek, but not her face.
"Are you going to make me ask a third time?" Her fingers were rhythmically drumming across the armrest.
He inhaled sharply, robotically forcing himself to plant one foot in front of the other.
More of his mother's regal figure came into view with each tentative step he took, and the closer he got, the stronger the aching dread swelling within him became. If he failed to keep his resolve firm, even for a moment, he felt like he'd collapse right then and there.
'How ironic, I've wanted you to treat me with anything other than apathy for the longest time, but now that it's happened, I can't help but yearn for the complete opposite.'
He stood only inches away from her, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. As a matter of fact, he couldn't bring himself to do anything other than stand there stiffly, like a statue.
"I fail to see what's so interesting about the ground." Her drumming came to a halt. "Look at me," the coldness of her voice intensified—the pressure her presence was exuding on Alduin not lessening even a little.
He clenched his teeth.
'Get it together Alduin! Do you want to face your fiancée after this looking like a whipped puppy?!'
Slowly but surely, he brought his head up.
Martha's eyelids were drooping halfway, cutting the top of her pupils. The corners of her lips curled into a slight frown as she shot her son a gaze that you'd expect from someone who had just received the most personal insult one could fathom.
'F-fuck… talk about a death stare…'
With quickened breathing, Alduin mustered up the courage to speak.
"You don't look too pleased."
"Don't I?" Her voice dripped with venom. "Maybe you'd care to tell me why that is?"
'Hell if I know! If anyone has the right to be pissed it's me after that stunt you pulled!'
As much as he wanted to say that aloud, there was a time and place to give his mother an attitude, and this most certainly wasn't it.
Honestly, he wasn't sure how to respond. It was obvious Martha had someone watching him throughout the duration of his stay in Kuoh Town, but the wiser part of his brain told him that wasn't the smartest way to start this conversation.
"I'm assuming it has something to do with Kuoh?" He made sure to keep his voice void of sarcasm. "Although, I don't recall doing anything in particular to offend you. Save for leaving the Underworld without telling you."
He already knew that wasn't the issue, if it were, she would've done something the moment his feet hit Japanese soil.
Martha leaned back, still staring him dead in the eyes.
"Your confinement was your father's decision, not mine."
'In other words, you just don't care.'
"I don't suppose you're going to tell me why I was confined in the first place?"
Swoosh!
With the tap of her index finger, a single blade of wind blitzed passed Alduin's face, its force more than enough to sever his head clean off his shoulders.
"I'm not here to talk about him. He's irrelevant."
Gently, Alduin pressed his finger against his cheek, holding it to his face and noticing the smudge of blood dripping against his skin.
Strangely enough, the slice didn't worsen his fear, on the contrary—it sobered him up as if he had just received an awakening jolt.
Compared to her usual scoldings, a mere scratch on the cheek was inconsequential.
"Then what is it you want to talk about?" His posture eased up a little, but he didn't let his attentiveness slip lest he risk her thinking he was making light of the situation.
"You spent a month up there. I thought it'd be a good learning experience for you," her outward disappointment deepened. "It looks like I was mistaken."
Alduin pressed his lips together in confusion, erecting a wooden pole behind him to lean against.
"I think I learned quite a bit, especially about teaching. I doubt whoever you had watching me was there during the Rating Game, but it went pretty well."
'I also picked up on an awfully useful ability from consuming Tiamat's blood, that wouldn't have happened if I didn't agree to work in Kuoh in the first place.'
She scoffed. "Babysitting the coddled Gremory, that's your definition of time well spent? What use is there in you learning to 'teach'? You haven't even reached the precipice of Ultimate-Class, and you're light-years away from fully grasping your own abilities."
He hummed, struggling to decipher her true meaning.
"I don't understand, for basically my entire life, you've hardly ever taken any interest in me. But all of a sudden, you developed these 'expectations' of me, I don't know what it is, but you clearly want me to aim for something. You look at me differently, and I don't have the faintest clue as to what's going through your mind."
As per usual.
"What changed?"
He was dying to know what could possibly drive the embodiment of apathy that was his mother to express such interest in him. He didn't care whether that interest was positive or negative, the fact that it existed at all was baffling.
For the first time, it was like he actually existed to her.
"You."
"Huh?" He blinked.
"You changed. It started about two months ago." She said plainly. "Did you think I wouldn't notice when my son went from a useless, obedient drone to someone who actually thought for himself? To the point where he dared to rebel?"
She chuckled dryly. "Of course, just because you're using your brain doesn't mean you're using it well. But I thought the fact that you were attempting to use it all was worth my attention."
"Honestly, I'd even go as far as to say I was impressed by you. For you to rip the deeply ingrained loyalty Thora felt towards your father out of her heart—"
His gaze sharpened at the mention of Thora.
"I didn't rip anything out of her! Thora hasn't lost her loyalty! But she knows that father's not the same person she swore her loyalty to—!"
Slap!
She leaned forward, her palm striking his cheek with her nails. Leaving a stinging, bright red mark on his skin alongside five thin, bleeding wounds.
"Don't interrupt me while I'm speaking."
He clicked his tongue, lowering his tone, but refusing to let go of its ferocity.
"I don't know why you keep insisting she's some kind of convenient chess piece to me, but you're wrong. I haven't, nor will I ever play those kinds of games with people close to me."
Surprisingly, his words didn't seem to bother her in the slightest.
Instead, the corners of her lips slowly crept up into a faint smile.
"Liar," she laughed in his face, looking at him as if he were the single most naive creature in the known universe. "You have no choice but to play them. You wouldn't have been able to resist your father's will unless you did."
"In truth, Sirzechs and Serafall's backing is meaningless to you. Even with their blessing, there was no scenario where you would've gone to the human world unless you could bring Thora with you. Otherwise, you would have spent each second of your life worrying for her safety, dreading the possibility that your father would do something to her to force you back."
"But would Thora have gone with you solely of her own volition? Absolutely not. She holds affection towards you, I don't deny that, but the loyalty she feels to your father is deeper than you know. It's been cultivated for nearly two hundred years, your life's hardly a fraction of that. She sees your father as her saviour, he was her beacon of light and hope in a time of despair."
"Even though you didn't comprehend just how deep her loyalty runs, you did understand you wouldn't be able to leave unless you made her come with you. So what did you do? You flipped her perspective, you put yourself right between the ray of light of Thora's loyalty to your father, and made yourself the object of its illumination. You quite literally—blinded her with her own love."
Alduin's expression worsened. He despised each and every word that came out of her mouth. They were skewed. Twisted. A disgusting attempt to warp what he knew to be reality.
"Guilt. That's what it's all about for you, isn't it? It was the same with Roygun. You built this strange complex where you felt obligated to appease her before you left for the human world, you even went as far as to help her fix her four hundred years of celibacy."
She chuckled, as if she found it genuinely humorous.
An emotion Alduin didn't know she was capable of till today.
"I approve of your actions with those two, but the sentiment behind them? I find it pathetic."
"You want to be strong, don't you? Strong enough to resist your father's will?"
He exhaled dryly. "It'd be nice if you'd actually tell me what that 'will' is."
"You should be able to figure that out on your own. However, I don't mind telling you this—you and your father will eventually confront one another, and when you do, you will be at a disadvantage. A significantly large one."
"Confrontation? You mean like a fight?"
She offered no response, her expression unchanging.
"If you want to be strong, truly strong. You need to let go of your guilt, it's just a shackle that'll keep you chained to the dirt where the rest of the ants roam."
"Kindness is a privilege for the strong, and you, my sweet little viper, are laughably weak. Therefore, you have no right to be kind or hold consideration for those around you."
Her smile evened.
"The Gremory and Sitri girl were an opportunity for you to secure your position, but you foolishly let it go to waste."
'Oh, I'm just dying to hear this,' he rolled his eyes.
"Your situation with Sirzechs and Serafall is unstable. All the backing you get from them is dependent entirely on their mood, you're basically a charity case to them. A poor little boy born to his scary Mommy and Daddy," she said with a mocking pout.
"You say that like their sympathy's a bad thing," he retorted.
"Their sympathy itself isn't bad, the fact that it's the foundation of your relationship is. It makes their trust fragile, you can't afford to let that remain the way it is now that you're cooperating with the Governor-General behind their back." She said casually, openly acknowledging her tailing efforts.
"Even so, what exactly do you expect me to do with Rias and Sona?" He scoffed. "Have them fall in love with me and trap two Satans by becoming their brother-in-law?" His voice oozed with sarcasm.
She tapped her lower lip. "That wasn't my first thought, but seduction's proven to be a fairly reliable tactic for you—so I won't oppose it either."
His eye twitched.
"You're insane."
"Insane?" She pondered, seemingly recalling something. "Ah, that reminds me of why I was so disappointed with you in the first place."
Martha stood up and walked towards him.
With fury in her eyes, her hand shot out and clasped Alduin by the throat, lifting him and squeezing until he could let out nothing other than a pained croak.
"How dare you take pity on me."
"Who do you think you are? Just how much self-awareness must you lack to delude yourself into thinking I need protection from you? A brat who's yet to even come to terms with his own psyche. After all these years, I can't believe you honestly thought I'd ever leave myself vulnerable. Did you develop some kind of needy hero complex while I wasn't looking?"
"If anyone's 'insane' between the two of us, it's you."
She slammed him to the ground, pressing her foot against his neck.
"Since it somehow didn't occur to you, I'll go ahead and spell it out for you now." The disdain in her glare was palpable. "I am well aware that Sirzechs is a Super Devil. I understand what that title represents far better than you do."
Martha picked him up by the collar, whispering into his ear.
"To make sure you don't repeat that blunder ever again, I'm going to let you in on a little secret."
"I've been ready to become a Super Devil for a while now."
His eyes widened in sheer, utter astonishment.
"If it weren't for the nasty little side effect that advancement would cause me, I would've done so already, but alas, I'm still looking for a way to resolve it before I do if I want to remain a stable existence."
She released him, letting him flop to the ground and catch his breath.
"Of course, Ajuka's already aware of this thanks to those nosy abilities of his, and by proxy, so are the rest of his colleagues. If Sirzechs, or any of them, were to try me, it'd result in mutual destruction. That's something they'd never settle for, they're not the type to."
At an even pace, Martha started to walk away, leaving Alduin's brain to stir as it tried to make heads or tails of the revelation he had just heard.
"Don't forget, everything special about you comes from my cells, including your Dragonification. If strength is something you truly seek, it'd do you good to listen to your mother's advice."
///
I got quite a few comments on my public uploading sites questioning Alduin's claims of Martha being 'manipulative', and I actually think they're right. Just stating it isn't really as compelling as showing it, which is why I centered this chapter around Martha letting her true colors really shine.
If you want to support my work and get access to early chapters, go check me out on P@treon/Accel14!
There's also a discord if you want to communicate with me there or get updated on public chapter releases! (wNzT9AEsaz)