Chapter 85

One could be forgiven for being surprised when they were suddenly told that they had a child they weren’t aware of, especially when that child was already born and grown to the age of eight. That said, there was one more problem that added a significant layer of complexity to this situation. The so-called coupling that led to the creation of this child wasn’t performed by me. I was reincarnated, and I had only come to this body after its former occupant had died in a duel.

There wasn’t just a disconnect between the years that I wasn’t around for this child’s raising, but there was also the disconnect that I hadn’t even participated in the baby’s creation. Genetically, the child belonged to me, but considering the mother was my sister, there would have been a genetic connection either way. Considering the odd ways that genetics worked from the chimeric faery and human coupling, it was quite reasonable to surmise that biologically, my sisters and I had very little in common, at least on our mother’s side. We’d be closer to half-siblings than true siblings.

I had only thought that up recently. I had never considered the genetic relations to my sisters when sleeping with them. Since I still had the mind of someone else with their own family, it had never bothered me to carry on a sexual relationship with these relatives. That same aloofness could theoretically be applied to this child.

If I was going to accept such a conclusion, then what was there to say about Olivia’s baby? Originally, getting them pregnant had never felt particularly real. It was just a means of getting control and compliance, and I had always seen such enslavement as a perpetual thing that might even end in abortion. Since it was revealed to me that Olivia would be carrying the child to term, and perhaps a lot sooner than anyone could have thought, I hadn’t had much time to process it.

If I accepted that this body was now mine, then the seed this body gave to create a child was my seed as well. In the case of Olivia, I would accept her child as mine. As for the child standing before me, at worst, I’d need to see it like a sperm donor who the baby created separately from him returned into his life. The child was biologically mine. No, the child was mine.

All of these thoughts went through my mind in only a fraction of a moment as I made my conclusions. Knowing the rather insane faery queen and the fact that she had seemingly undone Olivia’s enslavement, it only made sense that she would have done the same for Lucilla. That meant that as a young girl, she had become exposed to my blood, become obsessed with me, and possibly without even truly understanding her body, she had sex with me and became pregnant.

When my father found out, he must have been horrified, and he did the only thing he could think to do. He sent Lucilla to the queen, the only woman who might know what to do about it. I had thought that she had spent her time training Lucilla, deprogramming her from her obsession over me, which ultimately failed. Instead, she had initiated the pregnancy and allowed it to carry out. However, since Lucilla’s obsession hadn’t been transferred to the child, this also must have meant that the child was safely birthed. It ended up a devil, and yet Lucilla was sane.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” I breathed out.

It hadn’t been my intention to answer with such an accusatory question, but the silence was starting to linger, and I was curious why she had deliberately kept this from me, even after she had come clean to me.

“How was I supposed to tell you?” Lucilla asked, her mood difficult to read once again. “In the beginning, I wasn’t even sure I wanted you to meet her. I tried to get you to leave, remember?”

I could agree with her assessment If I had left like I was supposed to, whether she had a child or not would never have come up. My eyes went to the little girl, who ducked behind her mother, clinging onto her skirt and looking somewhat frightened.

“Has she…” I closed my mouth and quickly reworked the moisture before continuing. “Have they treated her well?”

“As well as can be expected for faery. The only reason… she’s safe, is because of mother.” Lucilla responded. “I wouldn’t have left to intercept you if I didn’t know that Olivia would watch after her. No one else has any contact with her, including Mother. We’re the only ones.”

“That…” My hand clenched slightly.

I wanted to feel anger as if anger would justify the years of abandonment. This little girl had lived in a country surrounded by those that hated her. She was locked deep within the faery castle, hidden from the world. The only people who had any contact with her would have been Olivia and Lucilla. Deep down, I knew my anger was just for show, though. Everything that had happened in the past couldn’t be more separate from me.

“I admit, when I found out Olivia was pregnant, I felt a bit happy. Perhaps my daughter wouldn’t have to be alone anymore.” Lucilla’s eyes teared up. “Aren’t I pathetic?”

Olivia gave her a slide glance, but she didn’t seem to have the words to comfort her older sister. Olivia had once thought all of the sisters had gotten the raw end of the deal. They had all been tossed away by their father and sent to a strange land where they became political prisoners. Lucilla had been the one who was sent to be with mom, so Olivia had likely seen her as the lucky one. Yet, her story was likely more pitiable than anyone.

While Olivia got to play with Saria and Bala, get courted by the elf princess, and learn magic and play in a beautiful forest, Lucilla had to gift birth far too young. She had to deal with the bite of the devil’s curse and feared that if anything went wrong, she’d end up as insane as her mother. Then, for a decade she remained locked in this faery palace, surrounded by soldiers who thought her as subhuman to them, and she had to take care of her daughter alone while far too young to do so. Whether it was taking care of the baby, or dealing with the lunacy of her mother’s whims, no one would envy what Lucilla went through.

It was no wonder Lucilla had become the type to keep everything inside. Who did she have to speak to about it? Her mother? That was impossible. She had to carry the burdens by herself, and she was so determined to do so that even when she had the chance to reveal to me the truth, she had kept her mouth closed. I could understand the complex feelings that Olivia was feeling. I felt just as complicated.

I could apologize, but that would be pointless. Even if I put aside the fact that this was some other person. David was a young child when all of this happened. When his older sister threw herself on him, what exactly was he supposed to do? However, I couldn’t do anything about the past. The only thing I could control was the future. I took several steps forward, reached out, and grabbed Lucilla, pulling her into my arms.

“Ah!” She let out a little cry as she fell into my embrace. “D-david…”

“You’re far from pathetic. You’re perhaps the strongest person I know. You shouldn’t have had to do all of this on your own.” I whispered into her round animal ear, “but you won’t have to do it alone anymore.

“David…” Olivia was holding her hands together anxiously, but as she saw me embarrassing her sister, tears started to form in her eyes.

“Mommy… why are you crying?” There was a small tug on the back of Lucilla’s dress.

I gave her enough room to push back and look down at her side. I followed her to look at the young girl, no, my daughter. She was pretty like her mother or even her grandmother. The gray skin, red eyes, horns, and pointed ears didn’t take away from that at all.

“Little girl, can I ask your name?” I looked down at her.

She looked away shyly. “I won’t say!”

“Isabella! Where are your manners?”

“He’s making mommy cry!” She responded, still partially hiding behind her mother.

“Daughter… I’m not crying because of him. I mean, it is… but…” Lucilla didn’t seem to know how to express her feelings to her daughter.

“He looks weird.” The little girl interjected.

I had never cared about my appearance as a devil in this world, but hearing such a word from this youth seemed to hit me a bit harder than I would have liked. The fact that she shared many of the same features as I seemed to be lost on her. Then again, Lucilla likely would have gone out of her way to avoid bringing up her daughter’s appearance around the people here. I took a breath, putting on a smile and trying to be as disarming as possible.

“I’m very fond of your mother,” I responded. “She’s very important to me.”

The girl looked at me suspiciously for a moment. “Are you going to marry her?”

“Marry!” Olivia cried out.

“M-marriage…” Lucilla’s cheeks turned red as if such a thing was possible.

“I’m sorry. I love your mother deeply, but for various reasons, I am unable to marry her.” I crouched down, trying to put as much comfort and trust in my voice as possible.

“Oh…” The girl looked like she was thinking deeply. “So, it’s just sexual then?”

“Izzy!”

I broke into a cough, my eyes widened for a moment before I caught myself. “Wh-where did you hear things like that?”

“Mother’s books.” She responded immediately. “When a man and a woman are fond of each other, the man sticks his manhood into the woman’s womanhood. What does a manhood look like?”

“I thought this might happen…” Olivia mumbled.

“What is she reading?” I cried out.

“It’s boring. I can only go to my room and this garden. That’s why I read mommy’s books.” She turned and picked up a book I hadn’t noticed sitting on the bench before handing it to me.

Lucilla stiffened, her face turning completely red now as I lifted the book. The title of the book was “I was ravished by a devil”, and it depicted a devilish looking man who looked a bit like myself molesting a beastkin woman. My lips twitched as I shot Lucilla a confused look.

“Y-you need to understand, that I was in my teens when I was shipped off here, and like my daughter, I was very bored locked away in the palace. Mother gave me books to read, but I gravitated toward a particular type, and ended up amassing a large collection.”

“A collection…” I spoke quietly. “Of Devil dom romance?”

“It’s not what it sounds like!” She whined helplessly. “My interest was purely informational… at first. However, as I got more books, it sort of just snowballed and I collected a large number of books over a few years.”

“And gave them to your daughter…”

I hadn’t been aware this world even had such a thing, but I guess there was a niche for everything. The stories of devils enslaving women and making them pregnant seemed to appeal to a certain demographic. The young and naïve Lucilla who had fallen for a devil and gotten pregnant, what other media would she consume other than books reliving the most defining moment of her life.

“I didn’t let my daughter read them!” Lucilla protested. “She must be sneaking into my room when I’m out.”

“If you love mommy, are you going to love me too?” Isabella asked.

“I want to say yes, but I fear in the context, this is a loaded question,” I responded dryly.

“Will you violate me with your manhood too? In the book, The Devil has Two Faces, he first seduces the mom, and then the daughter. Then, he has them both at once!”

“And there it is…”

“He won’t, not until you’re fifteen!” Lucilla declared.

“Not ever!” I shot back before calming myself with a deep breath. “I love you and your mother, but you seem to be misunderstanding something. You see, I am your mother’s brother. I’m your uncle. Do you see? We’re related.”

I was her uncle and her father, but explaining such things now hurt my heart a bit too much. I’d rather keep our relationship simple at the moment. Once I knew her better and she knew me better, then I could finally reveal the truth to her.

“Oooooh…” She nodded thoughtfully. “So, you’re committing incest.”

“Geh!” She wasn’t wrong. “D-don’t tell me…”

“Most of Mother’s books involve family. Brother and sister. Mother and daughter. Sister and sister.”

“Eh?” Olivia perked up at that one, shooting Lucilla a blank look.

“It was a phase! It was just a small phase!” Lucilla now looked like she wanted to cry again for a different reason. “I’m not strange… Stop looking at me that way.”

Although she said that, my image of her as a tortured soul who had faced some horrifying circumstances and survived through adversity was starting to come under question. Was it possible that my big sister was just a big pervert?

As Olivia gave Lucilla a hard time and she grew increasingly flustered over the revelations her daughter was giving about her, Isabella herself was only looking around curiously, oblivious to the upset she had caused.

I found myself spending the rest of the day with Olivia, Lucilla, and Isabella. I concentrated most of my time on Isabella. As I interacted with her more, she finally warmed up to me, and it turned out she could be quite talkative. In particular, she was full of questions, and she would keep asking more and more. When those subjects touched on her mother’s books though, I made sure to steer the conversation in a different direction as quickly as possible.

The more I learned about her, the more that I found she did have a sheltered life. She knew almost nothing about the outside world. She didn’t know much about the king, the human realm, or even the faerys around her. I felt a bit relieved that she had managed to live a rather carefree life. I had feared that the faery prejudice would have caused her significant trauma, but it turned out this section of the palace was off-limits to everyone but the queen, a few servants that were not faery, and of course my sister and her daughter.

Over the last eight years of her life, my mother had rarely visited the child. The crazed faery queen didn’t seem to possess any familial affection. Then again, if my mother was just two halves of the same body, then it stood to reason that she got all of the affection. She had protected and kept the child alive. She had even gone out of her way to bring the child about, but she barely spoke to Lucilla, Olivia, or Isabella. This wing of the palace had become a sort of gilded cell that they were forced to live in. It was the only way they could be protected by the faery and kept away from the eyes of the celestials.

My group and I were now placed in that very prison. When the time came, would we be allowed to leave it? I understood why this place needed to exist, but I hated that my sisters had to live like this. I didn’t want them to have to live a life as prisoners in their own homes. I wanted them to have the freedom to do what they wanted and go where they wanted. That might sound strange considering that I was enslaving them, but it was why I had allowed Lucy to return to Benatong. I wanted my sisters to live freely.

A servant ended up bringing us a meal where we ate in peace. Only as the night was getting late and the drowsy Isabella could no longer keep her eyes open did we finally part ways and I left the courtyard. Her mother picked her sleepy form up. She had run around, laughed, and played to her heart’s content around the three of us, and her mere presence had seemingly brightened this place. As Lucilla started to head in the other direction, I reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

“Lucilla, you’re a good mother. To bring up our daughter despite the circumstances so that she can smile and laugh, you would have to be.”

“Brother…” She looked at me, her eyes wet and her lips trembling.

I reached up and touched her lips, stopping her from saying anything else. “Whatever it takes, I will build a world where you and all of my sisters can laugh and smile, just like our daughter. This is something I will swear to you, as the father of your child, as the king of a future king of pria, and as your brother. I will give us all a happy ending.”

“Mm!” She gave a short nod, and then we finally split away.

As I started heading back to my room, following the route that Olivia had taken me initially, I heard someone clear their throat.

I looked back to see that Olivia was still following me. “Do you mean it?”

“What?”

“You will find a way to make us all happy?” Olivia asked, sounding somewhat hesitant.

“It’s what I’ve wanted since the beginning,” I replied. “The only thing that has changed is that before I would only have liked things to work out. Now I absolutely will make it happen. I can’t afford anything less.”

She gave a short nod. “I see.”

I hesitated for a second and then opened my door. “Would you like to join me?”

She looked into my darkroom, her expression seemed interested for a moment, but then she shook her head. “I don’t think I’m the one who needs you tonight.”

“Olivia…”

“Go to her.” Olivia gave a lopsided smile. “She won’t refuse you.”

She turned and walked away. As she did so, I saw something small fall from her hand. When she had finally disappeared down the darkened hallway, I bent down and picked up the piece of paper. It was a crude map that showed where a certain room was. I closed my door, left my room, and then followed the directions to find the door. I knocked quietly, and after a few moments, the door opened, revealing Lucilla.

“Can I come in?” I asked.

“Always.”