“Mother!”
Igni screamed in fright as she quickly moved to block her mother’s mouth. Could it be that her mother is actually an airhead?
“Please ignore what she said, my lord!”
She pleaded as Prima struggled to remove her hand from her mouth. After a short while, she finally succeeded in prying off Igni’s hand. Her eyes were narrowed as a fierce smile crossed her face.
“Igni… you’ve grown strong.”
“…!”
Without warning, Prima charged forward, her hands poised as if to grab Igni. Igni moved fast, meeting her midway. Two pairs of hands locked as they began a contest of strength.
“To think you’d reach my level this fast…! As a mother, I’m proud of you!”
“Really? Then stop this nonsense and let go!”
The two started to fight just like that. I turned to Igni’s father, whose name I have no recollection of, and asked in a hushed voice.
“Are you not going to stop them?”
“Hmm?”
He turned to look at me, a smile on his lips, but his eyes looked empty.
“You probably have no idea, but in our species, women are stronger. So if I entered the fray, I’d just get squished like a pancake.”
“…” 𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮
His stage wasn’t low, but his words made me think that rather than being weaker than the two physically, he must mean that women were “stronger” in their race.
“Just let them be. They’ll stop once they’re satisfied.”
He added with a shrug before watching over the two, who were having a contest of strength. Igni had already activated her strengthening skills, but her mother didn’t budge an inch. She must be using some sort of skill, too.
The earth around them started to crack as the crowd started to gather and watch over the commotion. Shockwaves exploded from them at regular intervals, sending everything around the two flying far away.
“Ugh!”
Igni groaned as she started to get pushed back. To think she’d lose in a contest of strength, her mother is something else!
“Hah! Still weaker than I am! Don’t think you can snatch your father away from me with just this much power!”
“S-Shut up! And who said I wanted to take Father, yuck!”
“WHAT?! He’s the best dragon man there is! What else are you unsatisfied with?!”
“I have my lord, and I swore to only serve him and him alone! Take that old man with you and f*ck off!”
As the two bickered back and forth, Igni’s power surged once more. This girl’s still hiding some power! With a sudden surge of strength, she managed to lift her mother from the ground.
Prima’s eyes opened wide, but she was still an 8th-stage powerhouse. Something like this wouldn’t be enough to make her back off.
“Huup!”
She kicked the air… Yes, the air. Prima stepped on the air as if it were solid before pushing Igni down in one clean motion. Igni, unable to change the direction of her force, ended up with her back slamming hard against the ground.
“Argh!”
It was a solid hit! Igni, who got air pushed out of her lungs, couldn’t breathe for a short moment. At that point, she had already lost.
“Hmph! To win, power alone isn’t enough, my daughter. You also need experience and craftiness!”
After throwing some words at her, Prima then walked to where her husband was—in short, to our side.
“And so, what business do you have in our settlement, Will?”
“I’m technically still the head of Seimei right now, so that way of addressing me is…”
I wanted to reprimand her a little about her attitude, but seeing Igni still having a hard time standing up, I decided to let it slide. I myself am not fond of such formalities. I decided to simply cut through the chase and explain our purpose.
“We came here to talk to you about the election, wishing to get a promise from the dragons.”
After all, they’re living in the kingdom as an intelligent species. They also have the capacity to vote, so treating them as citizens of the kingdom isn’t wrong. There’s no rule saying that humanoid monsters are forbidden from voting, after all.
“Oh, that? Guren already came here yesterday, so we’ve already informed everyone. Don’t worry, as the master of our daughter, we will give you the support of the entire clan.”
Yep. Well, I did receive a report regarding that already, and that wasn’t really the purpose of our visit. However, saying that I wanted them to see each other after a long time would reveal that I had no idea Igni was visiting them regularly.
After that, Igni and I stayed with them for a while, enjoying their hospitality. Even though it’s only been a month, there must be some things they wanted to relay to each other.
The entire day went just like that, and when we returned to the Seimei clan, it was already dusk. Ember and the others were standing at the entrance of the Debauchery Hall, their faces covered in cute, jealous frowns.
“Master, it’s unfair to only go with Igni. Take us along too, next time!”
“Right, leader! It’s unfair! I want to go visit my family too!”
With that as the impetus, the topic of family started among the girls. Apparently, among everyone, only Igni and Fang had things they could call “families.”
Fatima, who lived in the distant past, was, of course, without a family in this timeline. Ember, a slime, was doubtful if her parents were even still alive. Even if they were, it would be hard to find them in the wild.
Fina was orphaned already, so other than Julia and her two tamed beasts, Judy and Yorm, she had nobody she could call family anymore. Hekate and Minerva are in a similar situation, with their “family” being nobody but each other.
Of course, the talk didn’t erase the fact that I went alone with Igni, so in the end, I was forced to sleep with everyone in a single bed. It was tight, but well, the topic made some of them feel down, after all. I guess this much should be alright.
𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮