22 Ch 22: Changes at Home
As dawn arrived, Baldeur looked at the sleeping naked woman snuggled up to him. The bed barely was large enough to contain both of them.
He hummed a soft lullaby to keep Zaira asleep as he untangled himself from her.
It might not have been necessary with how worn out she was from their nightly activities. He was only a little tired since he had recently entered the second cultivation realm, Qi Refinement. After the body tempering realm, his physical abilities were much higher than a normal person.
This was an advantage of those with Qi as a Source. Even in worlds that didn't have Qi for them to replenish their energy, their physical abilities would still be higher than others.
After putting on his clothes, he made sure the blanket was comfortably wrapped around Zaira and left the room.
As he entered the tavern a few people looked over to him. A man or two snickered when they saw him.
Baldeur began to realize that the rooms weren't sound proof. He forgot to put up a spell to contain the noise.
He sat down at the table with Jin and Aisling. He didn't react to the newcomer, while she turned a little red and gave him a tired glare.
Baldeur just gave her a smile and waited for his breakfast.
As the trio was eating Chetan joined them. He wasn't bothered by last night's noise since he had a handy little item to keep noise from his room.
"I hope you all had a good night's sleep. They almost have the goods ready to go." Chetan said.
They were taking more than the saplings with them when they returned to the City of Gates. The Zeerous Trade Company was only allowed to send people through the gate twice a week. So all the goods that arrived at their warehouse between those times were sent back at once.
It wasn't long until they found themselves near the gate waiting to be inspected to leave. Because they were with the main group of their Trade Company going back, their inspection went rather quickly compared to when they entered the city.
As they stepped through the shimmering dull mirror-like surface of the arched gateway, they felt a pulling sensation before instantly arriving back in the City of Gate. People often stumbled the first few times through a gate until they got used to the sensation.
The bright early morning natural sun was replaced by the dimming evening Sun orbs in the city. The time in different worlds rarely lined up completely with the City of Gates.
After an inspection by the gate guard, they accompanied the wagons to one of the Zeerous Trade Company warehouses where they would be inventoried and delivered to their final destinations for sale.
"You all did well. Head home for a rest and report to the branch first thing in the morning." Chetan said before heading out himself.
"Well, it has been a pleasure and I hope we get to work together in the future." Baldeur said.
"Same. You're more reliable than you appear." Jin said.
"We're all newbies, we'll probably be sent to different teams. But maybe in a few years we'll end up together again. Hopefully some of us will finish growing up." Aisling said.
"I agree. You can definitely fill out your figure a bit more." Baldeur ducked to avoid her wrathful flames and ran off towards home.
He didn't know when he was going to have the chance to tease her, so he took the chance he had.
As he arrived back at home, Baldeur could sense the two guards that were assigned to protect his family.
Pantel had disappeared for a year after kidnapping his father and had left his family alone since then. The company had decreased their protection detail a bit but still had some of their best people around to watch over them.
These guards would normally help protect Master Volundr, so Baldeur felt his family was safe even with just two of them.
"Mom, Dad, I'm home." Baldeur called out after entering the townhouse.
Levanya came out of her study on the ground floor and gave her eldest a tight hug. She knew he wasn't a Sourceless little boy any more but still worried about him.
"Did you bring me anything?" Ilinka stepped out of the study having been practicing her Mana inscription with their mother when he got back home.
'Bend Space for my Whims: Dimensional Pocket.' With a simple phrase and a flick of his wrist, Baldeur pulled out one of the fruits that would come from the saplings that he had transported.
"There wasn't much on that world, but you won't find this anywhere else." Baldeur said as he handed over the fruit.
His little sister thanked him and took her prize. Baldeur liked spoiling her whenever he could. The memory of her laying weakly in bed after being poisoned was still clear in his mind.
"Your father and the others are downstairs. Do you need anything to eat? I was just about to start supper but we have a few things ready now?" Levanya said.
"I'm fine. I had breakfast just a little bit ago." Baldeur said.
"Well I'll pull out some bread and cheese in case you need something sooner." Levanya said.
Baldeur then made his way into the basement where their family training room was.
Vivek was going through some blocking moves with his twin sons.
"Baldeur!" Kun and Zhang yelled as he came down the stairs. They stopped what they were doing and ran to greet him.
"You guys have been practicing. Maybe you'll be able to land a hit on me one day." Baldeur said.
"Just wait until our bodies stop growing and we can fully cultivate." Kun said.
"Then we'll be able to wipe the floor with you." Zhang added.
The twins were confident in beating him in martial combat once they got further in cultivation since those with Qi as a Source had the best physical abilities.
If only his brothers knew that he was also a cultivator and that everything their father was teaching them came from him.
"Brother." A little nine year old girl jumped into Baldeur's waist.
Mei Lei was the youngest of the Aslanbek children having been born two years after Vivek had been kidnapped. She was a perfect blend of their parents, having Mana and Qi as Sources.
She was just starting to cultivate Qi and would often watch her brothers being trained by their father.
"Have you been practicing well, little sister?" Baldeur said.
"Of course. I've got to be able to beat you up when I get older too." She replied.
Baldeur gave her a good laugh.
"Alright, we'll be done for today. Head up stairs and wash up. Ask your mother if she needs anything done before supper." Vivek said.
After his younger siblings had gone upstairs, Baldeur pulled a piece of burnt parchment out of his dimensional pocket. The aged look of the parchment had been faked by Baldeur.
"I didn't have a lot of time to write much but this should help Ilinka get closer to the second choir in Divinus." Baldeur handed the parchment to his father.
He looked it over and saw a few notes written in a spiraling manner.
"I'll wait a few days before giving it to her." Vivek said.
Since Baldeur had revealed his secret to his father the two of them came up with a way for him to pass his knowledge on to his siblings without anyone else catching on.
Their method was for Baldeur to write the knowledge down and Vivek would claim that he acquired it through a colleague at the Trade Company.
If anyone outside their family were to see the rare and powerful knowledge contained within their secret family library, they'd riot and stop at nothing to obtain even part of it. And this was only beginner knowledge meant for those in their early days of training.
Big clans and powerful organizations would only have a few pieces like what Baldeur had produced over the past few years.
He wanted to make sure that his siblings would be able to protect themselves from scum like Pantel.
(Author Note: Before anyone gets any ideas, there won't be any incest.)
