Chapter 363 – Ho Sweet Ho
The shift was swift, and the two brothers sensed the difference in the air instantly.
One second they were amidst ashes, hot wind parading inside their throats. And the next second they found themselves in a room.
Warm. Cozy. Sweet with the scent of family.
Instinctively, Kaden’s shoulders relaxed, his breathing regulating. Soon, the need to sleep whispered inside his mind like a succubus.
He suppressed a yawn of temptation, and took in the sight of the space he spawned in.
The room’s walls were painted in red, the ground in black, then veiled by a blood-stained fur of a beast.
The stench was weirdly sweet.
The ceiling was high. A dim light shaped like a droplet of blood was embedded in the middle of it, drenching the room in red luster.
There was a bed, made from a mix of wood and steel. It glimred and glowed like fire under the light. At its side was a desk, nurous pictures scattered atop it.
In front of the open window, there was a wide table ringed by a chair. On the chair was seated a woman with shoulder-length black hair left loose, a notebook in her hand.
She was scribing. At least, she had been before sensing two new presences inside her room.
Daela frowned subtly, then her one eye flashed with crashing joy.
The presences were sohow familiar, even though different in a sense. Yet her heart skipped a beat. Even before turning her head, she knew the beings standing behind her.
But she didn’t have the ti to gather herself, feeling bear-like arms wrapping around her lithe body tightly.
She shivered in trauma, then bit her lips as cracking pain slapped her.
CRACK—!!
Daela’s eye dilated, her lips opening in a soundless gasp of surprise and pain.
"SISTER!!!!" Dain bellowed, voice delighted. The whole room vibrated, rattled, so of the furniture falling to the ground weakly.
"I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" Dain continued, raising the struggling Daela high in the air in a tight hug.
Daela waved her legs sporadically, searching for solid ground.
The Empress of Silence was stunned, her mind reeling at this unexpected situation.
Kaden, anwhile, was watching with a grin on his tired face. He felt the aura erupting from Daela before Dain. His grin widened, anticipating sothing.
And indeed,
"Twin blades," Daela grated, crimson eye growing with intense wrath.
Dain’s lips twitched, feeling the approaching danger tingling at his neck. With blazing speed, he unraveled his arms from his sister and threw her away from him. Yellow fla licked his bulging fra.
Daela fell on the table. It creaked painfully, then snapped into splintered pieces of wood.
She sprang to her feet in a heartbeat, her twin swords in her hand. Her borgne eye began to glow, white light coloring the scar and escaping slowly through the closed eyelid.
anwhile, Dain took one throbbing step on the ground; it winced in agony, shattered into shards of wood and lting steel, then propelled himself upward.
Just at that ti, his sister shifted her feet, her body shrouded in white, suffocating light. Her twin blades glimred, then she slashed at her brother as he was about to reach the ceiling.
"HAHAHAH!" Dain cackled, enjoying the situation.
He raised his index finger, and brushed it against space from top to bottom. The air sizzled, burned, then was sliced into two, revealing between its crack the sight of a battle axe.
The axe pulsed once. Then the coming attack was burned to oblivion.
Dain reached the ceiling and stuck his feet against it. Forgetting to control his strength in his excitent, the ceiling exploded into a rain of stone.
Yet he didn’t care.
He continued to laugh, balling his hand around his axe. The weapon shrieked in joy. Incandescent fla burst from it, rolling around the space like waves of an ocean.
Dain raised his weapon, then swung with exploding laughter.
Fire erupted, only to be snuffed out instantly. He opened his mouth in surprise, only for his body to freeze when an arm as thick as the bark of a tree wrapped around his shoulders.
"The first thing you do after coming back from years outside is destroying my ho?" Garros murmured, yet Dain’s internal organs quivered.
He chanically turned his head towards his father. He crooked a smile, "Well, father," he laughed nervously, seeing the illusion of worlds smashed into shards of glass inside his father’s eyes,
"Would you believe if I told you it was sister who started it?"
"My sweet daughter?" Serena echoed, appearing from the void itself. "She would never."
She stood beside Daela, whose eye was fixed on Dain with intense fighting spirit.
Serena laughed, "What did you do to anger her, Dain?"
"It was her!" Dain said in indignation. "I just hugged her and she tried to kill . Mother, father, I am the victim here!"
Dain tried to defend himself.
But even if years had passed, Garros and Serena knew their son well enough to know he was the troublemaker.
Seeing none believing him, Dain involved Kaden. "Ask the youngest!" he redirected, pointing at Kaden.
The man himself was sitting on a chair, legs crossed, a tea in his hand while reading a book he found on his sister’s desk.
There were glasses on his face too.
He was achingly cute at that mont. Especially when paired with his sleepy eyes.
At the ntion of his na, Kaden lazily raised his head, watching how everyone was looking at him with strange eyes.
He craned his head, "What’s the matter?"
"What are you doing?" Dain asked incredulously.
"Reading."
"How can you read at this mont?"
"I can focus in all situations."
"And where did you even find the tea and the glasses?"
"That’s details, brother. Don’t mind them."
Dain’s lips twitched, while Garros cackled uncontrollably.
Serena ran towards Kaden and hugged him. She caressed her cheek against his, saying how her son was so cute with glasses.
Daela had forgotten her anger with Dain too, standing near Kaden while poking his cheek with her finger playfully.
Her face held a cute, expressionless pout.
"Ti," she murmured curtly. "Too much ti."
Kaden smiled, "Sorry," he said. "Things happened."
"My baby, mother missed you," Serena whimpered, holding Kaden’s head against her breasts.
Daela frowned, not liking her mother monopolizing her little brother.
" too, mother. I missed you," the youngest answered while tapping his mother’s arms softly for her to release.
She tightened even more.
Daela acted.
Above, Dain and Garros watched this scene blankly.
"Is this fair?" Dain whispered to his father.
At his question, Garros beca happy. So happy that tears were trickling down his cheeks. "I am so delighted you are back, son!" he cried, hugging Dain tightly.
Dain was surprised, but still he smiled. But soon his smile was wiped from his face,
"With you here, I will no longer suffer alone. We will suffer together from the youngest’s monopoly of my wife and my daughter!"
Dain froze, finally understanding. He looked at Kaden, then started to cry with his father, shouting how unfair it was that Kaden received all the love from the won.
Serena and Daela ignored them.
Kaden, anwhile, was staring at Daela strangely. More precisely, he was looking at her borgne eye.
His brows knitted together.
"What happened?" he asked.
The room went silent, and all of them focused on Daela. Even Dain, finally noticing the slashed eye of his sister. His eyes went cold, all humor burned away.
Daela unhurriedly raised her finger, brushed it against her closed eyelid.
Garros and Serena said nothing, letting their daughter choose what to say. But it was quite easy,
"Nothing happened," she muttered, smiling faintly, ruffling Kaden’s hair lovingly. "Just a scar. Is it ugly?"
Kaden fell silent, then shook his head with a smile. "Ugly? You look like a better version of grandma Scarlet."
He bared his teeth, giving her a thumbs up. "Very goddess of war!"
Daela nodded strongly, smiling, ruffling Kaden’s hair faster.
anwhile, Dain’s mouth opened in an O shape, seeing not only Daela smiling but also showing an obvious act of affection.
For a mont, he thought he was dreaming. But he was not.
"What did I miss?" he whispered, transfixed by the scene of Daela cuddling Kaden as if he was her baby.
Serena complained at the side.
Dain scoffed jokingly at the blatant favoritism.
"You missed many things," Garros said, looking at his son, "but you have things to tell us, son."
Dain nodded, smirking. "I indeed do."
"Where should I start? How I beat all the FireBorn and beca friends with their Patriarch, or when I provoked an Epithet-ranked Wyvern into a chase?"
Below, Kaden snickered,
"How about starting with how you found yourself stuck in a basent dungeon after being manipulated by the Empress?"
Silence again reigned inside the room.
Dain looked at the insufferable smirking face of Kaden, cuddled between Daela and Serena.
His lips twitched, veins bulging on his forehead. Garros tapped his shoulder with sympathy,
"I understand your feelings, son," he whispered, looking at Kaden,
"Even I sotis feel the urge to slap the youngest’s arrogant face."
"Let’s do it, father!"
"Who?" Serena and Daela asked in unison, glaring at them with intense fighting intent.
"Slap who?"
The n fell silent.
Kaden cackled.
How good to be ho.
So good that seconds later, Kaden fell asleep, cuddled by his mother and sister.
Protheus had returned ho.
—End of Chapter 363—
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