Chapter 401 - The Situation

Back in the Silvaria Kingdom, Cecil was spending time with his wives again. His routine became much more leisurely now since he had nothing left to do most of the time.

After supervising and attending to the family disciples' morning and afternoon training, he pretty much had free time in between. He spent this free time taking care of Serilla and helping Lucia in her training by sparring with her whenever she needed him to.

He would receive weekly reports through his MID from his brother Gabriel in regards to the scouting team's mission. He would also receive reports from his butler who had already returned to the frontlines of the war over at the Goldenia State.

Their small and private wedding had already been conducted with only a few people participating in the ceremony and reception. Cecil and his family were obviously attending, but on Katya's side, only her trusted subordinates had bothered coming to attend and since there was a momentary lull in the war, there were some of her most trusted commanders and generals that made the trip just attend her wedding.

The only downside was that Katya's father wasn't even there to give them his blessing but Quinn had already received or maybe even forced out some form of approval from the Goldenia Family. Anyway, the wedding went on without a hitch and the two were now husband and wife. Soon enough, they'd also be a happy family.

Cecil was feeling rather generous and because he didn't want to keep the newlyweds apart from each other for too long, he had tasked Quinn to quickly end things and he gave him the authority to mobilize a portion of the Silvaria Family's personal forces and use the newly developed military technology that his family had secretly developed.

He even commissioned Elizabeth's Little Kings to help him out in the war and from the reports he was receiving from Quinn, Cecil felt that the war would soon end.

The tides of battle had quickly shifted after the Silvaria Family's forces and the Little Kings took part in the war. Instead of defending, they were now the ones attacking.

It wasn't too long ago that he had received an update from Quinn that they had successfully taken over the island that was at the chokepoint of the Goldenia States' bay. The island had been turned into a literal fortress, but with the combat prowess and military might of the Little Kings, the Silvaria family, and the Goldenia Family's armies, the hostile takeover proceeded without a hitch.

They were in luck as well since they had been able to capture the Faustus Archduchy's navy admiral, Jena Nohkurl. As touching as it may have sounded, the navy admiral had sacrificed herself to let their Field Marshal escape unharmed.

However, a prisoner was still a prisoner. Moreover, she was an important prisoner considering her status.

Cecil already knew that his father had been keeping his eye on the United Federation, especially their leader, Mr. Tristan. It was too bad that they gave away nothing since it was most likely that they already knew that their other two rivals were keeping an eye on their movements.

It was rather unfortunate, but Kaiser's informants that he had planted into the Federation, weren't able to uncover any sort of evidence that pointed out that they had indeed been providing support and information to the enemy throughout the war.

They did catch some small parties and budding nations but they were only the middlemen. They never found out about the source even though all suspicions pointed towards the Federation being one of the culprits involved.

The Republic had no reason to prolong the war, even if it was for a profit. This was because they were preparing to expand their territory into the No-Man's Lands core areas using the Silvaria Kingdom's 'help' when they were investigating the ruins. There was also the matter that the Republic needed their troops back in their homeland so that they could defend themselves from the periodic monster attacks.

Having split their forces up wasn't an advantageous notion for them. The only reason why they agreed to help out the Goldenia State was that the Silvaria Kingdom had presented this as a requirement when they sold to them the Storm Howlers.

The war still wasn't over yet so Quinn still couldn't come back. He had sent some spies along with the Faustus Archduchy's retreating forces and was able to find out that they were planning to mount a counterattack soon.

When Cecil informed his father of this, Kaiser found it unpleasant that the enemy didn't know when to back out of a losing fight. It was troublesome since they had more important things to attend to.

The Omnifaust Archduchy had now become aware of the presence of human forces inside the No-Man's Lands and they had just recently established contact with them and there was news that their Leader wanted to form a cooperative relationship with them and would be visiting the kingdom as a show of goodwill.

They now had a common enemy which was the Faustus Archduchy since the archduchy had recently just encroached upon the lands of the Omnifaust Republic. The archduchy should have already seen that they were being cornered already and yet they were still trying to mount a counterattack.

It was foolish in Kaiser's opinion. Right now, instead of trying to attack, they should be trying to negotiate a ceasefire with them. He couldn't understand the thought process of the archduchy's leader.

Kaiser did hear from Augustus that the archduchy's leader was a rather war-driven man, but to think that he'd be this irrational and still try to finish things with his fists. It was pure stupidity on his part as a ruler responsible for the lives of his people.

Anyway, since his son had now directly interfered in the war by sending his family's personal army over, he didn't need to worry about the war any longer. Kaiser had already heard about the dangerous things that his son was secretly developing from his wife so he had no worries about the outcome of the war.

He only questioned why his son didn't bother informing him about it and had only informed his wife. From what he knew, even his 2 sons and eldest daughter weren't aware of what their little brother was doing.

"Just what's going through that brat's mind? He's changed a lot...not like it's surprising..."

"Don't worry about it, honey," Anastasia said to him. The married couple was currently having their sweet private time in bed after so long.

Kaiser had become quite busy with the kingdom's affairs and hadn't been coming home so often. It was only during when all of his daughters-in-law's parents had come to gather at their family estate would he quickly come home.

"He's already grown up and is now acting as the patriarch of the family in my stead since I'm now too busy being the 'king'...but it's just a little unsettling that he's now keeping secrets even from me...where'd my pure boy go to?!"

"Hmph, you act like you've lost your son or something. Anyway, don't you think its better this way?"

"What do you mean?" Kaiser questioned.

Anastasia looked up at her husband and said seriously, "We need to keep the family's affairs and the kingdom's affairs separate."

"..."

"Later down the line, our family will inevitably be split up into two families. The Silvaria Royal Family, descended from the next king, Mathius, and the Silvaria Family, descended from the family's next patriarch, Cecil."

"I know that, but still, is it necessary to keep secrets between family members?"

"This is just Cecil's way of making sure that he doesn't dabble into the affairs of the kingdom. He's paving a way for the family to detach themselves from the kingdom's affairs so that future generations won't have thoughts of doing something foolish like starting a conflict with their family members that inherit the throne."

"..."

"Secrets are necessary, but it's not like he'll use these secrets to harm the kingdom or Mathius. He also told me that the only person allowed in Mathius's line of descendants to know about the Silvaria Family's secrets would be the King of each generation," Anastasia explained.

"Preventing conflicts amongst family members... Not a bad idea. We're naturally aware of what things are at the current moment, but it might be different once we're gone. I'm glad Cecil's thought so far into the future," Kaiser said with a satisfied chuckle. He was glad that his son was preparing measures so that their family would never get into conflict with each other.

He didn't want the repeat of the branch families to happen again to their main family.

"Anyway, it's not like we're going to be gone any time soon. We'll have plenty of time to watch over our children and grandchildren after I've served my time on the throne and passed it on to Mathius."

"Yup~ now, it's been a while, but let's have some fun~?"

*****

Time passed on and things were going so well for Cecil. It was like all his plans were falling into place and everything had gone on without a hitch.

However, he still couldn't help but feel the same nagging feeling that something was wrong. He also began experiencing headaches lately. At first, it didn't seem like a problem, but when he started to hear voices and start seeing dreams about something ominous and vague, it began weighing on his mind.

Cecil thought that his control over Providence had begun to wane and its influence was beginning to affect his mind again, but when he tried testing it out, that wasn't the case.

'Come to me.'

"Huh? Seri, did you say something?" Cecil suddenly asked.

"What is it, darling?"

"Did you just say something earlier?"

"Uhm, no? You were brushing my hair and I was slowly dozing off... is something the matter?"

Cecil was currently spending his leisure time with Serilla once again. He had been brushing her hair when he heard someone, or something, call out to him. He spread his Mana Sense into his house and the surroundings but nobody was around, except for the few family guards who had just passed by their house on their patrol route.

They had no servants inside their house because Serilla and Lucia loved doing housework. Of course, Cecil had kept a maid by Serilla's side because she was pregnant, but that maid was currently in the kitchen having her lunch.

"Weird... I thought I heard someone call out to me..."

"Are you okay darling? Lately, you've been getting up late at night because of your 'dreams'...are you sure that they were your future dreams that you'd have whenever you used Providence?"

"That's the thing, Seri...I've never once used Providence's skill after the war with Merkruz..."

"It's been that long? Then, is the power perhaps getting out of your control?"

"No, I just checked the other day. I still hold absolute dominance over my weapons..."

"Hmmm..."

Serilla couldn't find the answer. She could only conclude that her husband was being delusional or something, but that too was pretty much impossible. She knew full well how powerful her husband's mind and how high his cultivation stage was. There was no way someone as powerful as he would grow delusional without a cause.

"Hmmm, maybe it's due to stress? How about we go out and have some fun!"

"Stress? Is that it? I've been feeling stress-free as of late. In fact, I've been feeling carefree lately since I stopped worrying about my cultivation..."

"Huh? Then, could it be because you haven't had enough s.e.x?"

"W-what the—how could you say that?!" Cecil exclaimed at his wife's absurd remark.

Serilla grinned playfully at him and continued saying, "Well, I know that you and Lulu haven't been doing it so much because of her training... how about we have some fun? It's been so~ long since we've done it~"

Cecil restrained his now flaring urges since his wife had just mentioned it. He knew for a fact that this wasn't it. To begin with, he wasn't that l.u.s.tful even though he did enjoy doing it with his wives whenever he got the chance to do so.

"Seri, that's not the case, alright? You know how I am. Also, please don't tempt me. You're still pregnant. I don't want to burden your body and cause problems with your pregnancy."

"Oh..." Serilla looked a bit dejected. She had already started stripping her clothes but seeing as her husband didn't want it, she couldn't force him like how she used to. It was then that she had a bright idea.

"I still have my other hole darling~"

"PFFTTTT!!!" Cecil immediately spurted out the water he was drinking when he heard her words.

"Serilla! Stop! Now! W-where in the hell—"

"Lulu told me. It seems like you love doing it in both—"

"Okay, stop! Now!"

Serilla chuckled at his reaction. She leaned in and whispered seductively into his ears, "Well, shall we do it~ you know you want me~"

"..." This only caused Cecil's face to darken tremendously. He could only imagine his fate after his horny wife gave birth to their child.

"L-let's just save it for after you give birth, okay? So please Seri, stop tempting me..."

"Che, no fun..." Serilla pouted and turned away.

Cecil knocked on his forehead a few times before pulling her into his embrace and giving her a hot and passionate kiss.

"Oh, my~ did you change your mind?"

"No."

"No fun~"

"Please be obedient, now come here, I'll continue brushing your hair."

"Okay~"

Cecil's leisurely days continued and were soon going to be brought to an abrupt end when news of his brother and sister, Gabriel and Angelia, as well as the scouting party that he had sent out, had gone missing...