Chapter 57 - Letting It Slip

Gren's arrival caused a small uproar since he brought home a bunch of snacks. Gren noticed the six goblin girls running to the cart but Estella's glare got them to behave. The improperly cooked dough balls found a good home in the ant girl's stomach. After the women helped themselves to a meal, Gren asked for a hand in taking some stuff upstairs. The dwarf women and Tahloh jumped at the opportunity to help.

Gren asked for Estella to help him carry his mother upstairs, not telling her what was wrapped up. For now he gently placed his mother body on his bed. "Thanks, Estella. I don't think I could have moved her on my own."

"Her? Gren, what is under that cloth?" Estella was worried that Gren had abducted someone.

Gren gave off a weak laugh and tried making an excuse. "That was just a slip of the tongue. No need to worry about it." That only made Estella worry even more.

Estella moved to unwrap the body while Gren struggled, failing to stop her. "A woman?" In Estella's confusion, Gren was able to get around Estella and use his body to cover his mother. "Gren, what is this? Who is this?"

Gren couldn't hide it anymore. "She's my mother. I thought she died but she's still alive. I just have to heal her and she'll be fine." He pet his mother's hair while talking about her.

Estella wasn't convinced that Gren's mother was still alive. She didn't seem responsive and Estella couldn't see any signs of her breathing. She was thinking about sneaking in later to check it out for herself; if Gren was keeping a dead body in his room then something was wrong with him and she would need to set him straight. "Sorry, Gren. I was just curious and didn't mean any harm. Okay?" Gren didn't seem as defensive now and Estella left the room after he seemed to have accepted her apology.

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Estella decided to tell Jessica about what happened in Gren's room. Jasmine was too big to go upstairs and Estella was sure that Jasmine would just tell Gren since she was oddly devoted to him. Estella felt that Jasmine wasn't completely there psychologically but Jasmine didn't seem to care about Gren having multiple women so there was no point in addressing it yet.

Jessica was sleeping in her room. She had been cooking for a few hours straight so she said she was tired and went to bed early. Estella knew that it wasn't polite to wake Jessica up but she was really worried about Gren. His behavior wasn't normal.

Jessica slowly opened her eyes and yawned, asking Estella what was going on but because of the yawns Estella couldn't understand her the first time. "What's going on? You seem worried about something."

Estella kept her voice down. "It's about Gren." "Gren? Is he alright?" "Yes. Please wait for me to finish before asking me any other questions. Gren seems to have a dead body in his room and he's very defensive about it. He says that it's his mother and that she's alive but I couldn't see her breathing."

Jessica nodded, seemingly relieved by Estella's words. "You had me worried for a moment. If it's really his mother then she can't be dead. Since you're his wife I think you have a right to know. Come here, I have a painting of his mother."

Estella was confused so she listened to Jessica and walked over to her desk. Jessica pulled out a framed painting from one of the drawers and handed it to Estella. "This painting belonged to my grandma. It was her most prized possession so be careful with it." Estella looked at the painting and could see a heavily pregnant woman wearing a priestess's outfit. "Recognize those eyes? They look just like Gren's eyes, don't they?"

Estella looked closer at the painting and could see the familiar beautiful green irises. "Why would your grandma have a painting of Gren's mother? Was she a famous priestess or something?" Estella came from a place without the Church or any major religious faction. Her people instead worshipped the mythical high goblin; an evolved hobgoblin with red skin that was said to have the strength to rule over all of the goblin tribes.

Jessica realized that Estella couldn't figure out the significance of the painting so she decided to give Estella one more hint. "Look at the date written at the corner of the painting."

Estella had to double-check the date to make sure she read it correctly. "But that's more than seventy years ago. This can't be a picture of his mother. The woman I saw in there looks too young."

Estella couldn't figure it out with her current knowledge so Jessica decided to just tell her what she knew. "That picture that you're holding is a painting of the goddess worshipped by the Church of Healing Light: Gren's mother. I saw a painting of her without the veil and she greatly resembles Gren. Surely you've seen him do unexplainable things when you were with him. Everything weird that he does makes sense when you realize that he's at the very least a demigod."

The information was a bit too extreme for Estella to believe. She would still need to investigate but this time her target would be the crates he brought back from the Church. The crates were left in the storage room at the back of the second floor hallway so it would be easy to sneak in. She would just need to wait for people to fall asleep.

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The incident with Estella made Gren realize that his mother wasn't safe just sitting there on his bed. His bed was made from mostly solid wood so he decided to build a new frame for it using the Advanced Arsenal. The new frame left enough room for his mother's body and was openable from the side so he could heal her and shift her body every day.

Before placing her in the hiding place he used his healing magic on her body, hoping that it would at least help her get better. "Mom, they're telling me all of these stories about you but I don't know what to believe. Are you really a goddess? If you are a goddess then what does that make me?" His mother couldn't answer his questions.