“Little Delia, mom can’t stay. I – I can’t stay here.” Despite her words, Sofia couldn’t seem to let go of her daughter.

The situation confused Dyon. He had long since figured out that there was a massive part to this story he hadn’t figured out.

When Eli had brought Delia to him, thinking that she was dying, he had examined her to be perfectly fine. But, the problem with that was that there was an unfathomable energy that had held her together, thus allowing her constitution to act. The question was, who could have placed that unfathomable energy within Delia?

Dyon didn’t know how exactly to sense celestial level energy. This of course made sense, considering his boundary was far too low for such a thing. But, what he could tell was that the energy within Delia had been of a much higher grade than saint energy.

Originally, Dyon had thought that this was because of Delia’s mother. After all, he had already met Patia-Neva, and he hadn’t given off the air of a celestial level expert. In fact, he was nothing more than a meridian formation expert, just like the other heads at the time… Or so Dyon had thought.

However, Delia’s mother was very clearly still a saint! By all rights, the energy that had saved Delia couldn’t have come from her. So the question remained…

If it wasn’t Sofia, the only person it could have been was Patia-Neva. Or, that was the person who made the most sense. But if it was Patia-Neva, that meant he was strong enough to hide his presence from even Dyon… So why hadn’t he saved Sofia himself?

If he was so formidable, why had he even allowed his family to be separated?

Dyon was a person who could hide himself from even King Belmont and Connery Sapientia of all people. He had such a powerful soul that even the celestial experts of this universe were beneath him. And yet Patia-Neva had to have been right under his nose with him being none the wiser.

“Patia-Neva.” Dyon’s voice filled the room. But, he purposefully manipulated it so that Delia and her mother couldn’t hear him. If he was wrong, all he’d be doing is ruining their moment together. “If you’re there, now’s as good a time as any. I don’t need an explanation. But, your family does. I know you have a good reason for not saving your wife earlier, so I promise that I’ll protect both her and Delia while you can’t.”

With a wave of his hand, Dyon sent a teleportation array to an empty room upstairs before sending Delia and Sofia away. At this point, teleporting small distances like this for him, as long as he could make use of a relay station – a technique he created himself for his first campaign – was child’s play. Larger distances would require more intricate arrays and more time, but his proficiency now was more than enough to help a mother and child have some privacy. It was also more than enough to save Madeleine and Ri.

Within his spatial pocket, Patia-Neva had been shocked to hear Dyon directly address him. But, after thinking things through, and seeing how Dyon wasn’t sure if he was there, he began to understand.

“Thank you.” He said, quietly transmitting his voice to Dyon before tearing his way toward the room Delia and his love were in.

Dyon smiled, and with that final act, his clone disappeared. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰

Suddenly, Dyon turned his gaze toward the door. “You guys can come in, you know. Why wouldn’t I welcome my mother and father in law?”

A moment later, an awkward looking King Acacia and his beaming queen walked in. Dyon, of course, let them in through his barrier and into the dining room hall.

Ri immediately got up and hugged her mother. They had been separated too abruptly before, and Ri, although she supported Dyon then as his wife, still dearly missed her mom.

“Aw, Little Alex, don’t be like this.” Kawa smiled warmly, rubbing her daughter’s head, “You’re a grown woman now! I expect little grand children to be running around soon. Since I couldn’t raise you, I have to redeem myself!”

A light laughter filled the room as Ri blushed profusely, hiding her face in her mother’s chest. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

Dyon got up, offering a seat to his in-laws. He seemed to be treating King Acacia as though he had never said a bad word about him, but that only made the complicated feelings in Edrym’s heart permeate even more.

They had only come here because they noticed odd movements from the Pakal clan. Although Dyon seemed confident in apparently handling the world himself, Kawa had insisted on them being protectors.

“Dyon I –” King Acacia started.

Dyon immediately shook his head. “I can’t have my father in law apologizing to me. Pretend as though it never happened.” Dyon smiled, as long as King Acacia had the intention to apologize, that was enough for him. “This, by the way,” he continued, turning to Little Lyla, “is your successor.”

King Acacia was stunned by Dyon’s reaction. The more he interacted with this boy, the less he seemed to understand him.

“What an adorable little girl,” Kawa smiled lovingly.

“Big brother,” Lyla looked over to Dyon with a sad look on her features, “He needs help.”

Dyon turned a meaningful gaze to his little sister before rubbing her head. “Alright. We’ll see what we can do.” Dyon had already had every intention to help his father in law. Dyon couldn’t sense celestial energy, in the strict sense, but gauging the cultivation of celestial experts was within his ability. After all, he had been able to do so even with Elder Daiyu.

From what he could see, his father in law was much weaker than he should be. Even weaker than Head Sigebryht, something that shouldn’t be the case. Clearly something was wrong.

However, before Dyon could make a move, the doorbell suddenly rang.

𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚