Chapter 43: She's A Demigod Too?

Hesitating as she didn't know the full situation, Willow began, "I don't know what you think or know, but I know a bit that there are hardly many laws protecting children aside from the ones that are about protecting them from human trafficking. An adult will not be in trouble for beating a child. Apparently, the father would beat her for lying. I know for sure that attacking a child or raising a sharp object at a child is treated as normal as any assault and murder, but beating a child to bruises is fine here till just recently. I don't know why it took so long, but it did. Li Yan's father had beaten her for lying. I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't a lie since the guy is in a rural town back south of China. It'll probably be a while before the laws can take full effect, I'm guessing, since even a teacher could beat their student's hand for mistakes in the past."

"Did she know she was being abused?"

Willow breathed a sigh and shook her head, "No. I don't believe the father would even let her know they were abusing her, much less the rest of the family."

"Sounds like you know them very well." Belen raised a brow.

Willow nodded, "I do know them very well. The family is well known in their small town. A relative of mine told me that they've recently kicked out one of their daughter from the family the day she graduated from high school."

"Why are they doing this to their daughters?" Belen looked to her in bewilderment, "Does this have anything to do with the one child law?"

"Nah." Willow shook her head, "That didn't matter since they already have three sons."

"Then, what's wrong with one girl?"

"Nothing." Willow responded with a casual sigh, "If it wasn't for the fact that she was a reminder that her mother cheated on their father with another man. Even when the head of the family said that they would be taking the child under their wings, the town knew that the family was only trying to preserve their own pride, especially when her step-father was obsessed with the idea of a perfect family. So, you can see that there are family problems."

"Why didn't the father call out?"

"I believe it's because he only appears once." Willow replied, "After all, they never stay around their child and partners."

Belen's eyes widen in bewilderment as his jaw nearly dropped, "A demigod?"

Willow nodded with a sigh, "That's right. My brother told me that the step-father came in contact with a strange group later on after they kicked the girl out. We don't know why, but they went out to find the girl. The family never found her again and that's when the family was massacred. Li Yan survived because her granduncle pulled her out in the nick of time. According to Li Yun, Li Yan is the only daughter of the eldest son."

"But, she's obviously not that girl." Belen responded remembering that their conversation was based around the child.

Willow responded, "She isn't. But, her mother is a woman who refused to marry the son but later gave birth to her and brought to the family's front doorsteps. The son has big problems with family ideas, just like his father, and, according to Li Yun who is the granduncle's daughter, her father told her that the child was accepted due to blood connection to the main family branch. However, the father was ready to leave her in an orphanage or in a trash chute."

"He can't if the entire family voted against it." Belen assumed, "Because of her blood."

Willow nodded. Belen sighed, "What a messy family situation..."

"Problem is," Willow sighed, "Her mother is in the same situation as the missing girl's father."

Belen froze upon hearing her words and turned to her in bewildered silence. He stared at her with a face that shifted from confusion to bewilderment and finally exasperation before he finally leaned back against the walls, "That's crazy..."

"There's a big world out there." Willow shrugged her shoulders.

Akira who was watching all of this with a wide grin on his cat face laughed, "This is something you don't see very often!"

Belen was thinking in silence and confusion before turning to her for confirmation.

"She's a demigod too?" Belen questioned her in shock.

Willow nodded, "That's what I believe."

"And the father doesn't know that?" Belen questioned her in confusion.

"He doesn't." Willow said with a sigh, "Would you go back to someone who tried to push you down or take advantage of someone?"

"A human?" The guy raised a brow, "Tried to push down a goddess?"

"Apparently so." Willow shrugged, "There's circumstances probably. But, I've seen the father often in the past. Not a good guy to be friends with, but he does his job well. Pretty unusual that the family ended up having two demigods in the family."

"What happened to the sister?"

Willow shrugged, "Word has it that she was caught and never seen again by the group."

Belen took a deep breath before continuing, "It'd be weird for two godly figures to have multiple demigod children in one family. It's not something you see often."

"What if they're of different cultural background?"

"I don't know about that." Belen shrugged, "I've been living with the knowledge that I'm a demigod for as long as I could remember, but I don't interact with other demigods very often."

"Really?" Willow raised a brow, "Then how did you come across Elijah?"

"He came to find me." Belen responded, "At that time, I was given a choice either to go against Elijah or help him. I just wanted to choose a side that won't put me in a disadvantage."

"So you chose Elijah?" Willow raised a brow, "Why is that? He must've had some sort of upper hand to the battle that convinced you."

"There's that." He nodded, "During that time, he was working with his siblings and convinced other demigods. I recall that two of them was a child of Anubis and a child of Fortuna. So, one of the brought back the dead as zombies and the other used mind control on other demigods. During that time, they've taken control of two children of Agni. Half-siblings."

"Half-siblings..." Willow nodded with a sigh, "I figured that would happen eventually."

Belen confirmed with a frown, "It's something that happens when you're a demigod and your parent are immortals. It probably not something you'd like to hear, but it's reality here."

"Yeah." Willow nodded again, "I figured that would happen. What about if the immortal was unwilling?"

"Unwilling?" Belen raised a brow, "I'm not too sure. I haven't heard of the perspective of our parents' side. We sometimes just choose not to dig too much into it after we learn of it."

"What made you change your mind in the end?" Willow questioned him in confusion, "You said there was two sides. Who were on the other side?"

"There was another group of demigods that wanted to protect humanity, you could say." Belen replied firmly, "They wanted to stop Elijah for the chaos that he created and for trying to bring unseal their father from the underworld. I don't know much details, but the guy did a lot of shady stuff. I didn't liked it, but I only viewed our cooperation as a short term alliance. I don't care who won as long as they don't try to harm me which is what happens when you're on the losing side. They convinced me to defect and I've been on the neutral side since."

"I get it." Willow nodded in agreement, "Then, those group of demigods..."

"I took it that they succeeded." Belen responded with a smirk.

"Do you know who they are?" Willow questioned again.

Belen nodded, "A little, yeah. A group of five."

"They do realize that they're most likely in danger, right?"

"I doubt that the majority of them do if they're doing anything dramatic." Belen responded with a frown, "What exactly did they do?"

"Aside from playing back clips and announcing to everyone at the poll conference, they've also fought against Elijah with their powers before everyone." Willow recounted, "This wasn't something that could be edited because this was live. They've pulled a risky move, but a certain person ended up using her ability multiple times and have messed up the clip of the conference. So, she's revealed that she has a godly ability that usually are in the gods' hands. Such a powerful ability shown to the world and the owner's identity revealed, she's targeted by many already."

"So, Serah is after her?" Belen questioned.

"I can't confirm it." Willow said with a sigh, "But, she'd be a fool not to lose something she could make use of to their advantage. Was Elijah also after her?"

"That's right." Belen responded with a nod, "Just what was her ability?"

Willow took out her phone and searched up the video of the conference before giving it to Belen, "Take a look and make a guess."