Chapter 446: Half-Siblings
Nathan gestured toward Bernadette and Valerie as he mentioned their names.
"Bernadette. Valerie."
He was about to continue when he suddenly stopped and turned his attention toward one corner of the room.
His eyes narrowed slightly at one of the small mattresses that had been placed there.
Although there was no one visible on top of it, Nathan could see that something was weighing it down.
He sighed and shook his head. "Kimora, how many times have I told you? These are our guests, and your presence here is causing a nuisance to them."
Almost immediately, the invisible figure began to reveal herself.
It started from the bottom, where a pair of small feet gradually became visible. Her legs appeared next, followed by the rest of her body until a little female demon was standing there, her head lowered as though she had been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to.
She had red eyes, black hair with several purple streaks running through it, a pair of small horns protruding from her head, tiny wings on her back, and a thin tail extending behind her.
A few of the people in the room smiled or chuckled when they saw her.
The little demon was Kimora, the youngest of Lord Krygon’s children.
Everyone already knew she had been there all these while.
In fact, after an entire week of having her constantly appear around them, most of them were used to her presence.
Of all Lord Krygon’s children, Kimora was the youngest and also the most enthusiastic about the foreigners who had recently arrived at the palace.
She had taken a particular interest in them and seemed to find every excuse she could to come around, watch them, and spend time in their company.
In the process of taking over Lord Krygon’s position, Nathan had altered the memories of the entire Krygon family and assumed Lord Krygon’s identity.
This meant that, as far as everyone within the family was concerned, Nathan was their lord and the husband of Lord Krygon’s five wives.
Each of those women had children, giving Lord Krygon a total of twelve children.
Kimora, however, was different.
She wasn’t originally one of Lord Krygon’s children.
She was Nathan’s.
At this point, Nathan had been living as Lord Krygon for nearly two years. During that time, the five wives had naturally expected their husband to fulfill part of his roles.
Additionally, they were demonesses and their sexual desires were more intense than those of humans.
Nathan had spent most of those two years refusing to become involved with them. Eventually, however, there had been one occasion when he finally gave in.
That occasion resulted in Kimora.
So, out of Lord Krygon’s twelve children, Kimora was the only one who was actually Nathan’s biological daughter.
As for the situation at hand, this wasn’t the first time Nathan had told Kimora not to be a nuisance to his guests.
But this little demon possessed the mischief of a child and found it difficult to follow that particular request.
She had therefore taken to using an invisibility spell to sneak into the room and stay nearby, apparently believing that no one would ever notice she was there.
However, the spell only her invisible but not intangible. It also did nothing to hide her mana presence, which meant that they could still interact with her if they chose to.
They only feigned the lack of knowledge just because they wanted the little girl to have her way.
Kimora lowered her head and began walking across the room with a dejected expression. She had crossed Ethan’s corner when he suddenly reached out and took her by the hand.
Kimora stopped and turned to him.
Ethan smiled and motioned toward the space beside him. "Don’t worry. You can sit."
He then looked toward his father and gave a nod, as though it was totally okay.
Nathan gave him a brief look before sighing. "Fine."
Kimora’s expression immediately brightened as she sat down beside Ethan and the women around.
He also knew she was his half-sister.
Nathan then continued with what he had originally intended to discuss.
"So, Bernadette, Valerie. How did your training with Pan go today? I believe this was your first proper lesson."
The question caused Bettie’s expression to change slightly. She lowered her gaze as the memory of the previous day’s test came back to her.
She remembered standing before Pan as he had raised his staff. Bluish runic inscriptions had appeared around her feet, forming a circle around her body.
When Valerie and Bernadette had undergone the same test, the inscriptions surrounding them had glowed brightly.
With Bettie, however, it had been different. The glow had gradually weakened instead of becoming brighter.
That was how Pan knew she could not learn True Magic.
Bettie remained quiet as Bernadette and Valerie answered Nathan’s question, both confirming that their first day of training had gone well.
Before Nathan could continue, Percival suddenly raised his hand. "Mr. Na... sorry Mr. Krygon, Is there any way we can improve the cell service around here?"
Another thing they all had to refrain from doing was referring to Nathan by anything other than Lord Krygon.
It was necessary to keep up the appearances especially when there were other people around.
Nathan turned to him and shook his head. "There are no cell towers on the Demon Continent nor the means to power them.... The only electricity available here comes from the mana crystals used to power the palace and a few other places."
"Beyond that, I’m not sure there’s much I can do about the connection... I’m sorry, Percival."
Percival’s expression fell slightly.
As Nathan finished speaking, Ethan suddenly became thoughtful, as though an idea had begun forming in his mind.
Before he could dwell on it, however, Nathan turned toward him. "And what about your training, Ethan?"
Ethan nodded. "There’s been some good improvement."
"That’s good." Nathan nodded as well. "I actually came here because I wanted to discuss some further improvements with you. ...Improvements that have to do with our nature as demons."
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly. He instantly caught on. "Are you talking about life-force absorption?"
Nathan nodded. "Oh. I see you’re familiar with it.... Well, yes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about."
Ethan immediately shook his head. "Nope. I already decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t take that path."
Nathan sighed.
Ethan’s tone had carried this firmness that suggested he wasn’t going to budge on this.
"Okay," Nathan said after a moment. "I think you and I need to discuss this properly again."
Ethan scoffed. "I don’t know what you could possibly say to convince me to do that, but sure."
Nathan then turned toward the others. "In the meantime, is there anything any of you need? Anything I can provide or arrange for you?"