Monsters are scary.

No, let's be honest. There are monsters out there in the world that could make you wish to be born eyeless, just so you wouldn't have to see their grotesque appearance or their ghastly eyes.

Yes, there are.

Kaden himself had met his fair share of monsters — one even became his subordinate — but, bloody hell…

He had never felt such stress as the one he was feeling right now.

He realized that they were nothing more daunting than sitting in front of your parents, ready to part your lips and utter words that might get you thrown out of the door with a single swipe of their hands.

You would be paranoid then. Each look would feel like judgment from the heavens. Each parting of their lips like the prelude to condemnation.

But he was not alone. He came here ready, he came here prepared to face anything with only one thing — or rather, one person — his sister, of course.

Ample enough, or so he believed.

She sat beside him on the silky bed, but Kaden made sure to sit a little behind her just in case his father decided to strike. He would then have to put Daela down first.

Though he doubted Daela would last one second against either of his parents if they wished to bite his ass.

Hopeless, he was.

They were all inside Kaden's room. Garros and Serena stood side by side, leaning their bodies against the wall just beside the window.

Kaden cursed seeing that. His second way to escape was blocked just like that.

They wore their usual training clothes, tight to their bodies, showing muscles far beyond normal, expressions calm and relaxed, but still you could see traces of suspicion rising as they noticed how their two children were acting.

Kaden was unable to look into their eyes for more than two seconds straight, suspicious.

Daela was looking at them as if ready to slice them into multiple pieces, funny but also suspicious.

Serena raised an eyebrow.

"Did you do something wrong, my baby?" she asked, her black void eyes fixed on Daela's red ones.

She was clearly not talking to her. In this house, there was only one person Serena called her baby.

"Well mother… it actually depends on how you define 'something wrong,'" Kaden said with a strained smile.

Garros paused, then turned his head to look at his wife. She did the same.

They locked eyes for a second or two, then nodded at the same time, in perfect sync.

"He did something wrong."

"He definitely did."

"Is that why Daela is here? To stop us from showing him why we are his parents?"

"Looks like it. Quite funny, huh, husband? She thinks she can stop us."

"I'm afraid even my snort might blow her away."

"You better control your strength, husband. One week in a coma is enough."

"Oh. I was thinking of one month, but fine, I will be the bigger man."

The husband and wife duo continued to talk without much concern, casually discussing how they would make their own daughter unconscious for one week.

Do you know what was the worst?

They were bloody serious!

Kaden was now starting to freak out. He immediately leaned toward his sister's ear and whispered urgently:

"Do not leave me here alone, sister. One week coma is nothing. You've seen worse, right?"

Daela shifted her head to look at him. She saw him with the smile a merchant would give you when about to scam your ass.

But Daela was a loving sister so…

"I will stay," she said, giving him a serious nod, raising her hand to give him a thumb, then looked at her parents as if facing her greatest enemies.

Kaden was almost moved to tears seeing her cute action. He was a hair's breadth away from kneeling down and kissing her feet.

Okay, that was a little bit too exaggerated. But still, the gratitude was there.

And now, it was time to spill the beans.

"Tell us, what did you do?" Garros asked, his voice like the sound of space shattering. He crossed his arms across his chest and stared at his two children with a calm gaze.

Serena mirrored him, arms folded, her eyes fixed only on her baby.

Kaden took a deep breath, feeling it was now or never.

He had thought of many ways to tell his parents about his decision not to follow the tradition of one woman and instead to have more than one.

He had considered many ways. Some of them were very embarrassing but still all of them were viable. But at the end…

…Kaden just decided to be honest.

There was no need to hide the fact he was just a hypocritical bastard who wanted more than one wife because he was unable to control a heart that shifted like sand in the desert.

No need, honestly.

Sometimes it's better to face the truth head-on and that's why…

"Mother, father…" he started, his voice uncharacteristically heavy.

Immediately Serena's eyes softened hearing her baby talking like this.

Garros couldn't care less.

"…you might be disappointed in me for what I am about to say. I have spent countless nights watching the ceiling like a prisoner denied freedom, trying to search for the correct words. But it was useless, no words, no actions, no tears would dull the impact of the revelations I am about to make."

His voice was melodramatic. His expression twisted into one of great pain, clenching his heart tightly as if it would burst.

Instantly, his parents were waiting for something mind-breaking. Something that would shatter them.

But…

"I love more than one woman."

Simple. Concise.

But the silence that followed, and the faces his parents made, were almost comical. But also harrowing.

Garros's face was like someone lost, unable to put things together. He almost — almost — believed that his ears were failing him.

But saying that was like saying water doesn't wet.

Doesn't make any sense.

So he heard it correctly… meaning…

"What?" he blurted out, still surprised by this unexpected revelation.

Serena, in contrast, understood very well what her baby had said from the very first second he uttered the words. Her face couldn't help but harden like tempered steel.

Her eyes turned cold as she gazed at Kaden.

The young man's heart skipped a beat. He immediately clung to his sister. Daela started to stand up and placed herself before him, ready to be unconscious for one week.

"Are you serious?" Serena finally said.

She didn't release any power. Nothing at all.

But when she spoke it felt like they were about to be swallowed by a pitiless void with no end.

Sweat started to creep down the siblings' necks.

Kaden sighed ruefully.

"Yes mother. I do not want this. I know it's completely against our tradition, and I also understand you — as a woman — would not like this but…"

He shrugged with defeat.

"…I would have loved to have the power to control my emotions but I do not. My heart is a fickle place that gave parts of itself to different women."

"Ignoring its whisper would be to live in silent agony," he confessed.

There was, once again, silence.

This one was longer but somehow less heavy.

Garros looked at his son with a difficult expression. He was not the type of father to control the decisions of his children. He let them do whatever they wanted as long as they were sure it was their calling, what they desired.

But this… this was going against their very core.

Serena too. She was struggling with this not only because of tradition but because she herself was a woman and could understand the pain that came with seeing your loved one in the hands of another.

Her heart ached.

She wanted to say no. But Kaden was her baby… he was her child. Her youngest child.

The child she birthed when she was crawling on a ground drenched in fallen beasts and humans.

He was her favorite.

She couldn't look at his face, fidgeting in his place, hiding behind his sister, and tell him no.

He was just too cute.

Her morality and her love as a mother were clashing.

But at the end, she was a mother.

And like I once said… the love of a mother was heavy… but burdensome.

After all, don't you find it interesting?

Only the love of a mother could bear the weight of a second beating heart inside her.

It was too unique, too powerful to even describe with mere words.

So, with a defeatist smile,

"Ah… who are those girls who stole the love of my baby from me?"

She gave in.

Void Queen?

No. At that moment, she was not a queen, not a monster that could swallow the world into nothingness with a gaze.

She was simply a bloody lovely mother.

And perhaps that was the scariest thing of all — for monsters may terrify you, but only a mother's love can shatter you and save you in the same breath.

—End of Chapter 246—

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