Chapter 20 House Hestia

Lady Rosaline of House Hestia sat on her high chair which rested on a grandiose crimson throne. She rested concealed behind a blood red canopy that blocked vision and sense from any invading parties as a row of 36 low chairs lined up to either of her sides evenly in a semicircle.

A total of over hundreds of floating continents orbit around the Immortal Kingdom of House Hestia. Unlike the lower and middle realms, a star system in the higher realms doesn't consist of celestial bodies revolving around a massive star, but a mysterious domain of solidified ether energy supportive of life that extends for light years on end if need be.

Within the confines of this domain, citizens are afforded protection against lethal elements in the otherwise starry void of the higher realm. Lethal elements such as void monsters, radiations, explosive stars, black holes, and countless other natural disasters.

Divine cultivators require the self sustained domain of an Immortal Kingdom to maintain the prosperity of their respective dimensions where their followers and progeny multiply and prosper.

Out of the hundreds of divine dimensions, only 36 of them belong to the branch families of House Hestia, though that doesn't include the dimensions located somewhere in the depths of the void. These are merely the dimensions registered under the protection of the main bloodline.

That is to say, the 36 chairs below Lady Rosaline's throne were occupied by the family heads of each branch of these house's discussing the critical matters pertaining to the unforeseen future of the family. If one was to pay attention, none of the 36 seated elders, be it men or women, shared Nier's signature scarlet phoenix eyes.

That had to do with the incestous nature of the main branch to maintain the purity of the bloodline and guarantee the succession of their bloodthirsty martial intent. Thus, the fact that Nier's father and eldest brother had gone missing simultaneously brought the main line of the family into a crisis. At the worst case scenario where the son went missing, the father would take the responsibility to reproduce with his daughter.

However, it just happened that both the father and son went missing for over a thousand years now without notice of their status or locations.

Since the siblings had not been wed nor was the young lady bedded by the young master, the next case on the agenda should be to find a suitable partner for the young lady, and by extension that would guarantee the succession of the bloodthirsty martial intent and perhaps introduce a new martial intent into the main family line.

Of course, Lady Rosaline thought differently. She thought that their unique martial intent was fit for violence and slaughter. In a world where might makes right, everyone and their mother wants in on this unique martial intent, and thus the other Immoral Kingdoms conspired against her brother and son to force her hand into wedding her only daughter.

Well, she would rather bathe the upper realms in so much blood that the neutral elements of ether would be dyed red over capitulating to their schemes.

"Your Excellency Lady Rosaline, you have been declining marriage proposals, even maternal ones, for the past few century! At this rate, the opposing Immoral Kingdoms will take this as a sign of contempt and wage war onto our Star System!" Although the members of this particular meeting were, in all sense of the word, family. Alas, everyone outside the main family line was confined to never make it to immortality with their inept laws derived from second rate martial intents.

Thus, other than prancing around and tossing their opinions, they could do nothing to make decisions that affect the fate of the House as a whole. That responsibility lies solely in the hands of the immortals of House Hestia.

Although no one can see it, a pair of elegantly shimmering crimson eyes lazily swept over the anxious expressions of everyone present. Her soft red lips parted gently as she yawned in a naughty manner, not dignifying the complaint with a reply as she felt it was way beneath her status.

Another one of the high divinities, a woman, spoke her mind, "There are plenty of promising young noblemen ready to marry into our house, your Excellency! Although the young lady is talented, sooner or later she must find a husband to sire an heir to the family, we should maximise our gains!"

While one voice of reason after another spoke to the seemingly thin curtains concealing the throne beneath, no one was aware that Rosaline was already sleeping soundly with her little fist propping against her right cheek.

The massive gates to the throne room suddenly swung open as a petite young lady dressed in a plain black dress entered the hall, trailed by no one but her old servant who silently maintained a distance far enough not to infringe upon his lady's personal vicinity, but also close enough to protect her from harm if need arises.

Nier's sudden intrusion caused everyone to snap in attention to her rude behaviour. However, she didn't bother giving any of those cowards a glance before she spoke flatly, "Leave us alone."

"We should be saying that!" One of the branch divinities spoke up. Interestingly enough, it was the same woman who argued for potential gains.

Nier looked at this distant relative whom she couldn't recognise on the family tree with a puzzled look as she voiced her doubts.

"And you are?…" Nier's young and genuinely confused expression tossed oil onto the raging inferno of rage that bubbled up within the woman. She stared intently at the pair of crimson phoenix eyes with intense envy and malice.

Lady Rosaline slowly parted her eyelids to check the situation. Seeing that it was her daughter arguing with the bunch of trash, she decided to return to her short nap as no one would dare act up in her presence.

However, before she could close her eyes completely, a faint fluctuation of life its source being her daughter's lower abdomen struck her like a bolt out of the blue.

She immediately passed down her orders, "Leave us alone!"

This was the first and might as well be the last sentence Rosaline uttered in this facade of a meeting. The branch divinities felt helpless and frustrated, but they could do nothing about it. Thus, the throne room was quickly emptied out, leaving Nier alone to face the screen of crimson silk that blocked her vision and senses.

Behind the curtain, Rosaline fixed her eyes on her daughter's abdomen silently. Nier knew what to do, and thus she came clean about everything that happened as pregnancy in their family was a huge matter.

She spoke of how she went to seek the favour from an immortal fortune teller who directed her towards a mortal from a planet called Earth. She was told that she would be the missing piece of the puzzle in his life and vice versa.

At first, she didn't know what to make of it, that is until she sent him into the Exiled Paradise where he somehow managed to comprehend the laws of that forsaken land and nurture a unique martial intent tuned to its nature.

One thing led to another, and she decided to gamble with her fortune and gave her chastity to him. Little did she expect he was a virgin, allowing her to obtain the essence of the desolate martial intent. If that wasn't enough, she even found out that she was pregnant with his child, and she could feel the essence of her bloodthirsty martial intent and his desolate martial intent flooding into the new life within her womb.

The compatibility of these intents was astounding to say the least, and her child will be the first generation offspring of such a fusion. Thus, she decided to put a hold on her plans and return home to give birth to this child.

Rosaline listened with rapt attention to the fascinating story, her eyes and lips parting at the absurdity of it all. However, she also felt jealous of her daughter for plucking the essence of such a martial intent.

Whoever to dual cultivate with that young man now would have a slim chance of obtaining a sliver of his martial intent, and only a sliver of it.

"Does he know that you're carrying his child?" Rosaline suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Not yet." Nier felt confused, but she shook her head nonetheless.

"Oh," Rosaline went silent for a moment before asking, "Where is he now?"

Nier felt even more confused, but she still answered, "He has 5 years to conquer a private planet of mine in the middle realms, a planet called Arcadia."

"Oh," Rosaline went silent for an even longer period before she said, "Alright! Go seclude yourself within my private chambers for the next nine months. I will handle the rest."

Since Nier knew that it was an impossible task to keep her mother in the dark about something she desired knowing, she opted to be above board whenever questioned.

She at least knew that now with her pregnancy, her mother would be even more adamant about refusing those so called talents of the younger generation.

However, what she did not know was that she successfully planted a seed of curiosity in her mother's heart, a seed that hopefully won't bloom into a disaster.